CLEARWATER, Fla.—General contracting firm JE Dunn recently commenced work on a $48.5 million modernization project of Clearwater High School for Florida’s Pinellas County Schools. Clearwater High School was built in the 1950s, and thus many of its oldest buildings are deemed unsuitable for use as 21st century classrooms. The project work entails demolishing 17 buildings that already exist at the jobsite, as well as constructing seven new buildings from scratch and renovating five others.

Those new buildings will house learning suites, science labs, a media center, an administration suite with multi-use collaborative space, as well as a central energy plant and cafeteria. Additionally, two-story classroom buildings will be constructed.

Renovation and remodeling of multiple structures will be undertaken, such as at the campus’s ROTC and digital media production laboratory. Other restoration and modernization work at other buildings entails painting exterior surfaces and installing new HVAC components and flooring for the gymnasium building’s lobby. Furthermore, certain of the existing classrooms will be converted for use as a new Family and Consumer Science room.

A brand-new entrance to Clearwater’s football stadium will be constructed and new synthetic turf laid down for the athletic area’s track and field.

Beautification efforts will be made to the area of the campus area that stands directly adjacent to Gulf to Bay Boulevard, which is a major thoroughfare of the surrounding community, and thus provide a welcoming visual for visitors.

JE Dunn personnel at the firm’s Tampa office are working at Clearwater in conjunction with architect of record Hepner Architects, which is based in Tampa.

In a statement to SCN, Jake Nellis, JE Dunn’s vice president, was enthusiastic about his firm’s work at Clearwater.

“We’re excited to be part of this significant renovation that will have a tremendous impact on the community,” Nellis said. “The new facade will in fact be remarkable, and will be a landmark in the [Tampa] Bay Area.”

Work at Clearwater High School is currently scheduled to be unveiled in the fall of 2023.

JE Dunn was founded in 1924 and provides construction management services through its 23 offices around the country. The contractor has undertaken construction and renovation jobs in Florida since 1989, and the firm re-established its Tampa office in 2015. The company has done extensive work previously with Pinellas County Schools: In 2018, JE Dunn worked with the school district to retrofit a career and technical education center into a technical high school for the district, which is now called the Pinellas Technical High School at Seminole.

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MINNEAPOLIS—The Health Sciences Education Center at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is now complete.

The $83 million HSEC is the hub for all the university’s health professional school and was designed and built to promote interprofessional education and interaction, as well as foster a culture that prioritizes student and faculty well-being.

Spanning more than 200,000 square feet, HSEC is a unique addition to the U of M, already home to one of the most comprehensive health science centers in the nation. It’s also an asset that will benefit all Minnesotans, since the U of M teaches 70% of the state’s health professionals, including physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians and public health professionals.

“The new Health Sciences Education Center is much more than a building; it is a catalyst for change as we prepare the next generation of health care professionals,” said Mark Rosenberg, MD, vice dean for education and academic affairs in the Medical School, in a statement.

To welcome health science students to HSEC, the Office of Academic Clinical Affairs and the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost hosted a Welcome Week in mid September, with treats, giveaways and prize drawings. As part of the University’s efforts to mitigate its spread of COVID-19 on campus, physical distancing practices and facial coverings were required at all events.

“By preparing ourselves and our students for the future, we will have a significant impact on our state, our communities, and our personal and professional growth, all of which are closely aligned with our responsibility as a land grant University,” said Jakub Tolar, MD, PhD, vice president for clinical affairs, in a statement.

To meet the academic needs of today’s health science students, HSEC is home to:

• state-of-the-art classrooms, designed for interprofessional learning with active learning and small group teaching spaces;
• the Center for Health Interprofessional Programs, which allows health professions students a space to connect, collaborate, network and develop;
• innovation and learning support through the Health Sciences Library and Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine, which includes a rare book collection, virtual and augmented reality, makerspace and more to support problem-based learning;
• simulation and immersive training that allows health professional students to train in sophisticated, real-world care settings, trainer stations, briefing/debriefing rooms, and actor prep areas, and;
• student support and services.

Over the summer, HSEC was used in collaboration with the School of Public Health, Medical School, and the Medical Reserve Corps to assist the Minnesota Department of Health in COVID-19 contact tracing.

Also, M Simulation used HSEC spaces this past summer to train incoming residents and students on personal protective equipment in clinical environments. These are just the earliest examples of the building’s multipurpose usability and transformative potential for healthcare education.

“HSEC exemplifies the University’s commitment to academic and educational excellence,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Rachel Croson, in a statement.

“It will provide space for interprofessional education and relationship-building and will serve as a place where formerly distinct components of knowledge can be connected into an interrelated whole. Interprofessional collaboration is the future of health care, and this space is further demonstration of how Minnesota is creating that future.”

Minneapolis-based Perkins and Will and Connecticut-based SLAM designed HSEC and Kansas City-based JE Dunn served as the contractor.

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DENVER—The University of Colorado Denver recently celebrated its official “topping out” for its new City Heights Residence Hall and Learning Commons.

The 182,000-square-foot residence hall will add approximately 555 beds and is the first on-campus student housing complex for the university.

The $62.4 million project comprises a seven-story residence hall comprised of two wings connected vertically by internal communal scaled to encourage student interaction between floors.

Stantec is providing architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, lighting, and sustainability services on the project. JE Dunn is the general contractor

The residential tower offers students mountain or downtown views, and the L-shaped configuration of the building’s upper floors flank a sunny courtyard space that will provide a new campus gathering place and connection between the CU Denver campus neighborhood and the Tivoli Student Union.

The lower floors include a central campus dining hall on the ground floor, and a 30,000-square-foot student services center called the Learning Commons, designed to enhance faculty development and support students outside the classroom.

The Learning Commons will centralize student academic support and tutoring services into a collaborative facility that will serve residents and non-residents with the aim of making academic support approachable and convenient. The Learning Commons will also feature faculty development programs and expanded space supporting online education—a rapidly evolving and critical component of the academic landscape, even prior to the COVID pandemic.

As another prominent addition to the CU Denver neighborhood on the Auraria Campus, the project will complement the university’s refined masonry palate while showcasing public spaces with expanses of glass, including a new retail space.

The City Heights Residence Hall is pursuing a LEED Gold rating and will include a green roof on the Learning Commons, as well as five beehives to support the campus’ pollinator habitat.

“The City Heights Residence Hall is an exciting project that brings together on-campus student life and academic success by merging housing with student academic support services,” said Stantec Principal Dominic Weilminster, in a statement.

“Once complete, the facility will dramatically shift the campus culture, celebrating the diverse student body that makes CU Denver so special.”

Set to open August 2021 for residents, the building is in alignment with the potential ongoing impacts of COVID-19. Operational and physical design adaptations could include modified dining operations to allow for longer meal periods and reduced density at mealtimes, modified cleaning procedures, and touchless faucets for handwashing throughout.

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ATLANTA— A $9 million renovation of Russ Chandler Stadium, the home of Georgia Tech baseball has begun. JE Dunn Construction is the general contractor on the project, and Collins Cooper Carusi/Populous is the architect.

The project involves upgrading amenities and heightened experiences for fans and student-athletes. The demolition of an existing one-story building paves the way for construction of a 25,379-square-foot, two-story structure. The new facility will include three indoor batting tunnels, indoor pitching lab, event hall space, concessions and roof terrace. Interior renovation of 1,618 square feet will include new suites and ticket booth.

The concourse level will feature an atrium that also functions as a Georgia Tech Baseball Hall of Fame. It will be the first thing fans see when they enter the stadium—an iconic point of entry—intended to serve as both a welcome and a celebration. The atrium is also designed to convert into a 40-seat teaching auditorium on non-game days.

Other features include a new outdoor plaza; a new high-tech scoreboard; all-new, expanded restroom facilities and concessions (including a premium club area); a new alumni locker room; and an expanded training facility that will be open year-round for Tech players, and available to alumni/Major League Baseball players during the offseason.

To greatly enhance player development functions within the stadium, renovations will also include a training center, three 20-foot-wide batting cages, two 10-foot-wide pitching tunnels, and a video analysis room. The batting cages and pitching tunnels will be divided by retractable netting with turf flooring and a raised pitching mound.

With 400-plus student-athletes across 17 varsity sports, Georgia Tech competes at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics as a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), while also developing young people who will change the world. Georgia Tech has long been a leader in innovation in college athletics with the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills Program (known as the Total Person Program at GT), commitments to athletics scholarships until a student-athlete graduates and the use of virtual reality in recruiting among the many concepts that originated on The Flats.

The improvements are aimed at supporting player development, enhancing the fan experience, and celebrating the Yellow Jackets’ rich baseball history. The team has won five national championships during their illustrious history (four in football – 1917, 1928, 1952 and 1990; one in women’s tennis – 2007), appeared in two Final Fours in men’s basketball (1990 and 2004) and three College World Series in baseball (1994, 2002 and 2006). Combining world-class education with top-notch athletics, Georgia Tech has produced 87 Academic All-Americans.

The project is slated for completion before next baseball season.

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TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — May 26, 2020 — A substantial $18.1-million modernization of Tarpon Springs High School in Pinellas County, Fla., was completed recently by JE Dunn Construction, the project’s construction manager.

Improvements ran the gamut from resolving drainage problems and demolishing multiple buildings, to upgrading interior systems throughout campus facilities and constructing a 12,261-square-foot building to serve as the new home for Tarpon Springs High School’s widely acclaimed Leadership Conservatory for the Arts; JE Dunn’s work scope covered more than a dozen structures and numerous site upgrades.

Renovations and improvements included complete acoustical upgrades in the auditorium, along with replacement of flooring and carpet, painting, new doors and hardware sets, canopy installations, new plumbing systems, improved acoustics, updated electrical power sources, new walls and ceilings, and more-efficient HVAC systems.

Site improvements included courtyards and outdoor classrooms, new landscaping and sidewalks, storm water utility upgrades including improved storm water detention, and modified parking and drive lanes.

The project architect of record was Rowe Architects of Tampa.

JE Dunn Construction, founded in 1924, is one of the largest general building contractors in the United States, providing construction management services through 23 offices nationwide, and self-perform services in select locations. The company has performed work in Florida since 1989, and re-established a Florida office in 2015, in Tampa.

Rowe Architects Incorporated is a nationally known architectural design firm that evolved from the practice founded in 1965 by the late H. Dean Rowe, FAIA. The firm has an award-winning history of providing quality professional architectural services on educational, institutional, commercial, multi-use and historic preservation projects throughout Florida.

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DENVER—Construction has begun on a Colorado State University campus in Denver that is aimed to enable the public to explore and interact with educational content around water, food and health.

A recent groundbreaking ceremony for the $138.8 million project had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With a completion date slated for 2022, the new campus, called Spur, will bring the expertise of the three CSU System campuses—CSU in Fort Collins, CSU Pueblo and CSU Global. The campus will host families and tourists, K-12 student field trips, conferences and meetings,

in addition to researchers in state-of-the-art labs, college students pursuing degrees in fields related to agriculture and sustainability, and local artists creating spaces in onsite studios.

“The space will convene research experts from around the world related to water, food, sustainability, and human and animal health,” said Jocelyn Hittle, director of Denver programing for the CSU System, in a statement.

“It will not only be a place, but also a network—a launching point for collaboration across disciplines and sectors aimed at addressing global changes.”

The first of the three buildings to be completed will be named Vida and will focus on animal and human health. It will show the second location of CSU’s Temple Grandin Equine Center, which provides equine-assisted activities and therapies to humans.

The center will also partner with the Dumb Friends League to offer a donor-subsidized clinic for companion animals while providing hands-on education for CSU veterinary students.

Clark Enersen Partners was selected as the architect for this impressive project. JE Dunn is the general contractor.

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ATLANTA — With a completion date slated for July, the new Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy in Atlanta will soon open for the 2019-2020 academic year.

General contractor JE Dunn Construction celebrated the placement of the final steel beam in the framing of the new elementary school for Atlanta Public Schools (APS) in mid-March. Construction on the $27.6 million project began in July 2018.

The “topping out” ceremony included workers, vendors, suppliers and APS representatives who scrawled their signatures on the eight-foot symbolic beam. Topping out celebrations are customary in building projects, signaling that buildings under construction have reached their maximum height, with façade and interior work to proceed.

The new three-story structure—which replaces a 44-year-old facility that will be preserved for another use—will give the school greater street visibility and provide an enriched learning environment.

The 104,000 square foot Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy will accommodate a full-time enrollment of 753 and include a main entry/lobby space with a gallery, media center, cafeteria, gymnasium with stage, specialty classrooms, STEM and flight simulator labs, and outdoor lab/classroom space.

JE Dunn Senior Project Manager Jackie Avello says the project is unique in that there is a “focus on STEM curriculum and a design that captures the aspect of aviation to show the history of the Tuskegee Airmen.”

The Tuskegee Airmen was a group of African-American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. They formed the 332 Fighter Group and the 47^th Bombardmen Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel.

All African-American military pilots (who trained in the U.S) did so at Moton Field, the Tuskegee Army Air Field, and were educated at Tuskegee University, located near Tuskegee, Alabama. The group included five Haitians from the Haitian Air Force, and one pilot from Trinidad in addition to a Latino airman who was born in the Dominican Republic.

Avello says the biggest challenge of this project was “working in an established neighborhood on a very tight sight. This required a precise scheduling of deliveries,”

The project will also deliver new parking areas, play field, exterior lighting and signage, landscape and hardscape areas, covered walkways to the building entries, and improved bus and carpool circulation.

Headquartered in Atlanta, JE Dunn Construction, founded in 1924, is the 17^th largest domestic general building contractors in the United States. The company provides construction management services through 22 offices nationwide and works in an array of sectors including health care, higher education, K-12, commercial, industrial, manufacturing, mission critical, and aviation.

Atlanta-based Collins Cooper Carusi is the project’s architect of record.

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The $13.8-million overhaul involves new construction, the demolition or renovation of multiple structures, as well as site improvements throughout the campus.

Noteworthy in the scope of services is the construction of a 12,261-square-foot building that will be the new home for Tarpon Springs High School’s widely acclaimed music program. A building formerly used for the program will be demolished.

Renovation activity will include, among other tasks, replacement of flooring and carpet, painting, new doors and hardware sets, canopy installations, new plumbing systems, improved acoustics, updated electrical power sources, new walls and ceilings, and upgraded HVAC systems.

Site improvements will provide courtyards and outdoor classrooms, new landscaping and sidewalks, storm water utility upgrades including improved storm water detention, and modified parking and drive lanes.

The project’s scheduled completion is July 31, 2019, and the architect of record is Rowe Architects of Tampa.

“This project is extraordinary in several respects,” said Curtis DeLaquil, JE Dunn senior project manager. “Rarely does the renovation of a high school involve work at 14 separate campus buildings. The site improvements are also quite extensive —from rerouting and restoring the school’s main entrance, to the unique challenge of removing and replacing the underground storm water piping system through the center of campus. It’s nothing short of a transformational project.”

JE Dunn Construction, founded in 1924, is the 10th largest domestic general building contractor in the nation, providing construction management services through 20 offices nationwide — including Tampa — and self-perform services in select locations. Rowe Architects is a nationally recognized architectural design firm based in Tampa based firm evolved from a practice founded in 1965 by the late H. Dean Rowe, FAIA. The firm has a successful history of providing quality professional architectural services on educational, institutional, commercial, multi-use and historic preservation projects throughout Florida.

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PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — JE Dunn Construction’s Tampa, Fla., office is transforming a 57-year-old career and technical education center into the first full-time technical high school for Pinellas County Schools in Florida.

The $13.2 million project at Pinellas Technical High School at Seminole involves the construction of a 34,335-square-foot, two-story building, with classrooms, administrative offices and kitchen and cafeteria areas. It also includes renovating 26,250 square feet of standing classroom and administration buildings as well as making site improvements to the 42-acre campus.

Pinellas Technical High School (Tech High) is for students interested in a challenging high school experience that will prepare them for a career and college, according to the school’s website. Students at Tech High participate in hands-on activities and collaborate on meaningful projects that train them to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.

As a result of this project, Tech High will better facilitate enrollment growth with its new schedule of full-day classes, with a curriculum that includes the full spectrum of courses needed to graduate from high school as well as honors and advanced placement classes. The school’s technical offerings will cover building trades and construction design technology, commercial and digital arts, electricity, nursing, veterinary assisting, and game or simulation programming.

The new facility, which will be replacing the Career Academies of Seminole, is expected to open August 2018.

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ATLANTA — Early 20th century Architect Francis Palmer Smith was not the client when Joseph E. Brown Middle School was renovated recently in Atlanta, Smith’s hometown. Yet, in a sense, he was.

The project preserved the authenticity of Smith’s Romanesque-inspired design of Brown and advanced a philosophy of the “scholar architect” that school buildings should influence their users and “should participate in the education of students and help them appreciate beauty and culture.” Worn, circular medallions on the façade of the near century-old building are inscribed with inspirational cues such as “citizenship,” “service” and “culture.”

Besides upholding Smith’s ideals, the $22 million Brown Middle School additions and modifications project delivered to its client, Atlanta Public Schools (APS), the infrastructure of a 21st century teaching and learning community. The upgrade involved select interior renovations to the original four-story Brown school building and added a multipurpose building. The work scope also included an array of campus improvements. Cooper Carry served as the architect on the project, while JE Dunn Construction managed construction — both of which have local offices in Atlanta.

“It was our intent to provide an inspiring education environment that respected the original architecture, revering the existing building in form, composition and detailing,” said Sophia Tarkhan, associate principal with Cooper Carry and project manager for Brown Middle School.

Expecting the Unexpected

Older-building renovations typically present surprises. “It’s not uncommon to take walls down and discover things that aren’t supposed to be there, things not reflected in the documents,” said Brian Stephens, superintendent for JE Dunn Construction. “We had our share of revelations and odd challenges.”

For example, field measurements of the space between the existing gymnasium and classroom buildings revealed a slight discrepancy between the structural drawings and the actual measurements. JE Dunn also worked closely with its masonry trade partner to ensure the Flemish bond brickwork on one side of the auditorium building lined up seamlessly with brick patterns on the new building. Matching up the brick, mortar and cast stone elements of old and new was a meticulous exercise in trial and error. Permitting delays also stirred anxiety.

Like many APS projects, particularly renovations, the Brown project was in a dense residential area. Homes lined the street directly across from the school. Project personnel placed high priority on the safety of the surrounding community and were careful to minimize disturbances caused by the construction. Sidewalk access and street parking on both sides of Peeples Street, Brown’s location, were maintained throughout construction.

The construction team dealt with one especially untimely challenge: a historic rainy season that bedeviled the project from day one. Not only was December 2015 cold, Atlanta received 12.5 inches of rain — the rainiest Atlanta December in 20-plus years.

“Every day it rained,” Superintendent Stephens recalled. “At times, water was 2.5- to 3-feet deep. Worse than the water, was the amount of mud. It was a struggle.”

Even as rains poured, however, workers installed the concrete foundations for the addition building and installed a massive underground detention system.

New & Enhanced

The core of the Brown Middle School project involved select improvements to the historic four-story building, including reconfigured classroom spaces in some areas to create larger, more open learning settings. The administrative suite and the school’s main entrance were upgraded to improve ambiance, function and security. The project also gutted the building’s drab, sparingly used gymnasium basement, transforming it into an attractive dance room and STEM lab spaces filled with natural light.

Particularly painstaking was the task of replacing worn terrazzo flooring — popular in public buildings during the 1920s — in the school’s corridors and stairwells.

The 34,500-square-foot new addition building hosts a dazzling, digitally enhanced “media commons” that promotes integrative learning — a big move up from the traditional media center, housed in the basement of the original building. Now main-level front and center, the media commons is “a communally experienced space that celebrates learning,” said Tarkhan of Cooper Carry. “With this move, the natural progression was to extend this experience to the exterior by creating an enclosed terraced, soft-scape courtyard.”

The new building also provides a cafeteria, kitchen, modern fine arts spaces and counseling suites.

Campus improvements included a new softball field; a 420-foot-long, 34,540-square-foot underground storm water detention system; a football field with asphalt track; landscaping upgrades; and revamped traffic loading zones.

From inception, the complex undertaking benefited from the entrenched culture of collaboration shared by APS, JE Dunn Construction and Cooper Carry. The three have collaborated on multiple projects for more than 10 years.

“Our working relationship with APS and Cooper Carry was one of the main reasons the job went as smoothly as it did,” said Jackie Avello, JE Dunn project manager. “It would be difficult to overestimate how much the trust and camaraderie already built into the team contributed to our getting timely answers and making on-the-fly decisions regarding design changes and owner-requested changes, and to our ability to respond promptly to unforeseen conditions.”

Model of Efficiency

From innovative partnering to heavy reliance on technology, including building information modeling (BIM) and hyperlinked construction documents, the project adopted tools that saved time and resources.

An on-site project engineer worked each day to maintain the set of drawings, with the master set pushed to the entire project team immediately after it was updated, both via email and on the SharePoint project website. By using tablets, mobile kiosks with hyperlinked drawings and a printer, workers in the field could constantly access the latest plans — and take them directly to where their work was being performed. The SharePoint project website saved the project over $25,000 in printing costs.

JE Dunn also self-performed approximately 15 percent of the project’s scope of work, including concrete, demolition within the gymnasium scope, doors and hardware, rough carpentry and drywall. Doing so gave the company greater control over manpower and procurement, making it simpler to control costs and schedule.

The team also leveraged lean construction processes, particularly The Last Planner System, to promote smooth workflow and superior schedule performance. The Last Planner centers on pull planning sessions, in which all “last planners” (persons closest to the work with authority to make decisions) meet in a large room and plan together, working backward from the end of the project to the beginning. For each major project milestone, the last planners identify work that needs to be completed, or barriers that need to be overcome, before each task or activity can proceed. The interactive, mutual accountability of the process effectively reduces the amount of fluff trade partners can build into the schedule.

JE Dunn delivered the Brown Middle School project on time, within budget and without a single lost-time incident.

“Dunn’s project team exhibited great determination, innovation and creativity by overcoming the inherent budget, sequencing, logistical and schedule challenges in completing this uniquely complex project while maintaining the highest levels of quality and safety,” said Jere Smith, director of capital improvements for APS.

Jackie Avello is project manager for JE Dunn, while Brian Stephens is the company’s superintendent.

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