ORLANDO—DLR Group has been selected to design the new Orange Technical College – Westside Campus. Orange Technical College, part of Orange County Public Schools, encompasses five technical college campuses across Central Florida and is integrating a new vision to achieve specialized curriculum at each location.

The new Westside Campus replaces an existing building and relocates the school to a 37-acre site adjacent to Orange County Public Schools’ Ocoee High School and State Road 429. The new location’s proximity to a major roadway will allow the campus to serve as a billboard to the surrounding community, promoting new educational opportunities and celebrating career-focused learning.

“DLR Group is excited to enhance hands-on educational offerings to better prepare Central Florida’s future workforce through building construction and apprenticeship training programs. Our design will benefit dual enrollment high school students and adult learners who are seeking additional college-readiness and career certification, training, and placement,” said DLR Group Principal Nicole Nichols, AIA.

The new Westside Campus is projected to be 120,000 square feet, with a project budget of $36.5 million. It will focus on Building Construction programs including building construction technology, carpentry, refrigeration and heating, welding, and various apprenticeship programs, as well as Human Services programs such as cosmetology, massage therapy and veterinary assisting. The campus will open to students in August 2022.

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new construction, renovation, and adaptive reuse.

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Designed to serve as a true community asset, the new facility will create opportunities for children and students to learn and develop their skills for the future. The youth recreation facility is designed with a variety of spaces, including a health and lifestyles room, youth/teen game room, teen career educational center, technology center, gymnasium/multi-purpose room with stage, art and music labs, art gallery, dance studio, reading areas, and a full demonstration/learning kitchen. The project is being supported through a donation of up to $4 million by Clarence Otis, former CEO of Darden, and his wife, Jacqueline Bradley, a Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida board member for more than 20 years.

The site is located in one of the area’s oldest residential neighborhoods, just west of downtown Orlando, and will be part of a new community hub associated with the adjacent elementary school, an Early Childhood Learning Center and a Wellness Hub. To create a visual connection to the outdoors, the building is designed with open glass throughout, along with balconies and terraces. With construction set to begin in May 2019 and completion slated for April 2020, the facility will be built on land leased from Orange County Public Schools. The facility will also serve as Orange Center Elementary School’s gymnasium. Brasfield & Gorrie, of Winter Park, Fla., will serve as construction manager for the project.

In addition, SchenkelShultz Architecture also designed the new $2.3 million, 12,665-square-foot expansion of the Joe R. Lee Branch Boys & Girls Club in Eatonville, which is scheduled to begin construction this month. Located at 400 Ruffel Street, the new addition will more than double the size of the existing 9,500-square-foot facility designed by the firm. When completed in October 2019, the Eatonville branch improvements will include a dedicated teen center, new technology labs, digital arts lab, dance-aerobics studio and more. The Eatonville branch is named in honor of retired Darden CEO Joe R. Lee. Aagaard-Juergensen LLC, Orlando, serves as construction manager for the Eatonville project, as it did for the original facility which opened in 2011.

The design of both the new West Lakes facility and the expanding Eatonville branch align with the mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida to inspire and enable all young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Locally based Williams Company Building Division began the Orange County (Fla.) Public Schools’ $28.5 million renovation to Boone High School in Orlando.

Williams Company Building Division is serving as general contractor for the $28.5 million Boone High School Capital Renewal and renovation project now underway.

The Capital Renewal portion of the project will lengthen the life of the school buildings, and the replacement of the auditorium will update that component of the Boone campus similar to auditoriums recently constructed on other Orange County (Fla.) Public Schools’ High School campuses. Bob Lipscomb, CEO of Williams Company, explained that the one challenge working on the Boone project(s) thus far has been the limited access due to the size of the property, and the close proximity to adjacent occupied buildings and houses.

The Capital Renewal project at Boone includes the demolition of the standing auditorium, which will be replaced by a new $11.5 million auditorium, as well as a refurbishment and expansion of the existing cafeteria, and replacing building components that are beyond their useful life in different school buildings. These replacements include new roofing and HVAC systems as well as a newly installed campus-wide fire alarm system.

The project will operate under six separate phases, with Phase I including constructing a new stormwater exfiltration system and Phase II involving the demolition and replacement of the new auditorium building as well as a track and baseball field renovation. Phase III consists of the construction of new gymnasium and Business/Law Magnet building, with Phase IV continuing construction on the auditorium and gym along with capital renewal work beginning on two buildings. Phase V and VI will be the beginning and end of construction on the new cafeteria.

“One unique aspect about the work we are doing at Boone High School is that we are actually orchestrating several smaller projects while operating and managing them as one large project,” said Lipscomb. “When we leave the Boone campus, we will have completed the Capital Renewal work, the auditorium replacement, gymnasium replacement, emergency generator and cafeteria renovation projects.”

The project broke ground in 2018 and is expected for completion in 2020.

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Represented by Quentin Rhoades of Missoula-based attorneys Sullivan, Tabaracci and Rhoades, the group issued a letter to Commissioner of High Education’s Calyton Christian, said the university’s Board of Regents, stating that the demolition of UM’s golf course should not continue because the original intention of the donated land was to be “for student recreational use.”

“Because the purpose of the donation was so specific and so carefully expressed in writing at the time the state accepted delivery of the deed, it would violate Montana law to pave over the golf course and athletic fields in favor of buildings or parking spaces as proposed for the new Missoula College development,” the letter said. “The prohibition obviously makes sense from a policy perspective.”

According to the letter, authored by Sullivan, Taracci and Rhoades, the university acquired the land in 1928 by the Alumni Challenge Athletic Field with the understanding that the land would be solely used for student recreation. With the plans to construct new buildings on the property, AMF said the university is not only violating Montana law but also the trust of donators to UM.

“If people come to believe that their intent is meaningless to the university system, it is less likely they will continue to give,” the letter said. “But whether or not it makes sense that the regents honor the specific intent of its generous donors, the law requires it.”

The 2013 Montana legislature appropriated $29 million to fund construction at the college.

The group argues that the current Missoula campus has ample space to support the expansion and has encouraged building on Fort Missoula instead. Though the university has yet to formally respond to the letter, officials are now considering a new site on East Broadway also owned by the university.

The 7-acre site, located next to the Montana Technology Enterprise Center and across from Clark Fork River, is now undergoing a feasibility study but officials have said that the south campus location is still be considered.

“All along, the university has worked to involve the public in considering the best options for a new Missoula College building that will best serve the community and our students,” said Royce Engstrom, UM president. “As we move forward, consideration of both the south campus location and the East Broadway location will proceed.”
 

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