ATLANTA — As students begin to head back to school, safety and security concerns are among some school district officials’ top growing priorities and concerns across the Atlanta Metro area.

The Fulton County school district, for example, is investing in Avigilon, a high-tech video surveillance system that will be installed in over 105 public school buildings at a cost of $4.6 million, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The basic idea is to have one place to collaborate on emergency situations,” said Paul Hildreth, safety coordinator for Fulton County Schools, to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Safety comes in all forms — weather advisories, traffic alerts, as well as criminal activity.”

In addition to adding video surveillance, emergency alert systems, and more police and safety officers in Atlanta Metro school districts, recent construction projects like those in DeKalb County have incorporated several safety and security features across the district.

Fulton County is reportedly the fourth-largest school district in the state and has the funds for Avigilon’s elaborate system, but safety is an expense for all Metro school districts regardless of size. Some districts, like Gwinnett, Clayton and Henry counties, added more school police officers. Others like DeKalb County, which is Georgia’s third-largest school system, have invested $15 million in safety and security improvements in schools across their district.

Twenty metal detectors will be installed initially in five high schools throughout the district via a pilot program: Cross Keys High School (Region 1), Lakeside High School (Region 2), Stone Mountain High School (Region 3), Martin Luther King Jr. High School (Region 4), Towers High School (Region 5).

DeKalb County is investing $230 million into new facilities and additions, which will include two new elementary schools, in order to counter overcrowding in what is known as the Cross Keys Cluster, according to its website.

According to DCSD board meeting notes, the new construction of school buildings now includes roll-down doors that help to increase security if a non-authorized individual enters the school premises.

A report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.

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ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School District (ASD) officials recently broke ground on a new elementary school and community building designed by locally based architectural firm Breslin Ridyard Fadero Architects.

Serving most of the city of Allentown, ASD is the fourth-largest school district in Pennsylvania, with 16,628 students spread across three high schools, four middle schools and 15 elementary schools according to 2016-2017 enrollment numbers in ASD’s District Data Snapshot.

This project consists of a new 114,000-square-foot elementary school that will house approximately 875 students from kindergarten through fifth grade, and staff from Cleveland and McKinley elementary schools. The south entrance to the school fronts West Gordon Street and accommodates a dedicated bus drop-off and pick-up zone for eight buses. The north entrance accommodates a dedicated parent drop-off for 20 cars surrounding a parking area built for 79 vehicles. Both entrances access a common lobby that connects the school’s two distinct components: a four-story academic wing and a two-story core facility containing the multi-purpose room, stage, kitchen and music room on the main floor, with the library and art room above.

A two-story 10,000-square-foot community service building is attached to the western end of the academic wing and will house pre-K classrooms, an adult education meeting room, food pantry and potential health services space.

The project’s educational goals align with ASD’s strategic framework and 21st century learning initiatives. Equity of access, safety, personalized learning, collaboration, and technology integration are core values expressed in the school’s design. With a variety of spaces scaled for differently sized small and large group instruction, the building becomes a flexible teaching tool encouraging learning outside the classroom, supporting current styles and future changes in education delivery. Site amenities include a playground that will be available for community use.

WFMZ reports that the district hopes to open doors to the new school in June 2020 that will welcome extra students overcrowded at Ramos and Central elementary schools, and serve as a public space for community gatherings.

“That community building will be able to provide a food bank, it will also provide a health services aspect and then the second floor of the community house will hold a preschool,” said Thomas Smith, director of facility services for Allentown School District, to WFMZ.

A report from WFMZ contributed to this story.

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LAKELAND, Fla. — Florida Southern College (FSC) recently broke ground on its new School of Physical Therapy, a facility that will supply highly trained physical therapists to healthcare facilities in central Florida and beyond. The new physical therapy school will be strategically located on South Florida Avenue in Lakeland, less than a mile from FSC’s main campus.

Renovation and construction work is underway on an existing 6,500-square-foot building, with an 11,000-square-foot addition to come. The structure will serve as an addition to the Dixieland corridor, a historic district in Lakeland. Scheduled to open in August 2019, the building will include faculty offices, classrooms, and a state-of-the-art lab.

“This is another great, historic occasion as we break ground for our new School of Physical Therapy,” said FSC President Anne Kerr, who introduced the groundbreaking event as part of National Physical Therapy Month in October . “We will have about 300 students studying here,” she added. “This will be one of the finest doctoral programs for physical therapy in the nation.”

The mission of the School of Physical Therapy is to prepare entry-level physical therapy practitioners through dynamic engaged learning experiences and equip them with skills to provide patient-centered, evidence based care, and have a positive impact on the community.

Graduates of the program will be considered clinical doctors similar to physicians, dentists and podiatrists and provide services in a variety of settings, including hospitals, private practices, outpatients and inpatients clinics, home health agencies and nursing and assisted living facilities.

Locally based Wallis Murphey Boyington (WMB) Architects will serve as the project’s architect and Rodda Construction will complete construction work. Mike Murphey, WMB partner with ROI Solutions, said the building’s design is inspired by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, notably including elements reminiscent of the colored-glass “textile blocks” Wright incorporated into his designs for the Florida Southern campus.

“What a wonderful way to expose those design elements to the public, to increase the exposure of Florida Southern to thousands of people each day on Florida Avenue,” said Murphey.

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CONROE, Ala. ­— Grand Central Park has announced the addition of Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU) proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine, a major step in fulfilling the master-planned community’s goal of bringing a higher education component to the City of Conroe.

Situated on a 7.3-acre property on I-45 just south of South Loop 336, the college will feature a five-story, 216,000 square foot building. Phase one of the building will be 108,000 square feet with surface parking. A future phase two expansion will add another 108,000 square feet. Surface parking will then be decreased with the addition of a parking garage.

Construction of the building is scheduled to start by the end of 2018 with substantial completion by December 2019.

“An academic setting has always been a part of our long-range plan,” said Shannon League, director of marketing for Grand Central Park. “We’re delighted to serve as the home of Montgomery County’s newest medical school.”

Page, a 500-plus person multidisciplinary architecture and engineering firm with offices in the U.S. and abroad, was awarded the prime architectural and engineering contract in June of 2018 and is working in association with The SLAM Collaborative, a nationally recognized medical school planning and architecture firm.

Page will provide pre-planning and development of project-specific design criteria to support SHSU’s decision-making process to confirm site restrictions and development options. Then, working with the construction manager-at-risk, Vaughn Construction, Page will develop contract documents for construction.

The 107,000-square-foot facility will be constructed less than fifty miles from the SHSU main campus in Hunstville. Instructional spaces intended to support students’ first two years of pre-clinical instruction, research, academic programs, and student life include a teaching theater, a large active learning classroom, case-based learning team rooms, a gross anatomy lab, skills lab, and standardized patient and simulation suites.

In August, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) approved SHSU’s doctorate in osteopathic medicine, bringing the university one step closer to helping millions living in rural and underserved areas of East Texas.

“After approximately four years of researching, analyzing and planning, this endorsement represents a major leap forward in helping to train doctors who will predominately practice in rural, underserved areas,” said SHSU President Dana Hoyt. “Sam Houston is one of the best-suited universities to address our state’s rural healthcare crisis.”

Unlike other medical schools in the state, SHSU’s proposal requires no new state funding and will bring approximately $68 to $93 million annually in new federal funds to Texas. The proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine will collaborate with hospitals in rural East Texas counties to establish residency-training programs that will benefit the people living in those areas. To date, the proposed college has confirmed 20 affiliation agreements with 26 hospitals.

According to the site visit team, comprised of esteemed medical education professionals, who reviewed the proposal, “The proposed school has the potential to set new standards for addressing health care shortages among a patient population that is both rural and underserved and to define through research the relation of social determinants of health to optimal delivery systems.”

“I am humbled at the outpouring of support received from numerous state legislators, community leaders, medical associations, healthcare providers and thousands of Texans. Their confidence in our ability to deliver on our mission is inspiring,” said Hoyt.

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NEW YORK — The new Pre-K Center 613 facility was recently selected as one of the winners of the Concrete Industry Board’s Award of Merit for best design in concrete.

Located at 369 93rd Street in Brooklyn, the new three-story school is sited in a dense urban block surrounded by residential buildings, developed by the New York City School Construction Authority and designed by MDSzerbaty Associates Architecture as part of Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s “Pre-K-For-All” initiative.

“We are grateful for the challenges given to us by the SCA to consider alternate systems for the structure and envelope to expedite construction,” said Michael Freedman, principal of MDSzerbaty Associates Architecture. “Our use of a concrete structure, prefabricated precast wall panels and curtain wall resulted in a high quality, energy-efficient building that was constructed in record time.”

The rest of the project’s team includes: Thornton Tomasetti (Weidlinger Associates, Inc.) as structural engineer of record, NYC SCA Construction Management as construction manager, T. Moriarty & Son, Inc. as general contractor, Darcon Construction, Inc. as concrete subcontractor (foundation and superstructure), BPDL Inc. (Béton Préfabriqué du Lac) as concrete subcontractor (precast), U.S. Concrete-New York as ready mix concrete supplier, and Future Tech Consultants of NY, Inc. as the field testing laboratory.

The building is a concrete structure with a highly efficient precast concrete, curtain wall and metal rain screen envelope that exceeds energy code requirements. Expansive glass surfaces with shade control brings significant natural light to interiors.

The school is also honored for its outstanding design in the 2018 American School and University Architectural Portfolio, a premier showcase celebrating the best in educational design.

The school provides 14 classrooms for 252 students and includes administration offices, a community room and a clerestory-lit multi-purpose room at the cellar level. The interiors use a variety of materials that tie together common and classroom spaces with a soft yet vibrant color palette. The front yard setback provides space for outdoor play areas.

To shorten the construction duration, a reinforced concrete frame with architectural insulated precast wall panels were chosen for their ability to be rapidly constructed and erected.

The building is a Certified NYC Green School, equivalent or greater than LEED for Schools Certification.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Shawmut Design and Construction joined the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to break ground on the institute’s first new student residence in 30 years.

Designed by award-winning architect and RISD alumnus Nader Tehrani and his Boston-based firm NADAAA, the new 43,500-square-foot residence hall will house 153 students on six floors. Part of a larger quad enhancement project, it will feature amenities like workrooms, makerspace, bike storage, a shared kitchen, and outdoor terrace, and upon completion, it will allow for the phased renovations of Nickerson and Homer Halls.

“We’re incredibly proud to build RISD its first new residence facility in 30 years,” said Ron Simoneau, vice president at Shawmut. “With collaboration, paired with Shawmut’s IPD and lean construction principles, at the center of the construction and design teams approach, I am confident this project will be a success while marking a transformational moment for the campus.”

Slated to open in August 2019, the state-of-the-art project will engage an Integrated Project Delivery Method (IPD) to collaboratively fuse the talents of the team. The innovative design is influenced by thoughtful input from the campus community, including common spaces for socializing, making, reflecting and creative expression, and is tailored to meet the needs of RISD’s art and design students.

The new residence hall will be located at 60 Waterman St. on the campus’ residential quad. Site work on the new residence building began this August and included excavation and retaining wall construction. In June 2019, renovation of Nickerson Hall begins and is expected to be completed in August 2020. At that time, Homer Hall Phase 1 renovation will begin and will be completed in January 2021. Phase 2 of the Homer Hall renovation begins in January 2021 and will be complete in August of that same year.

Construction of the new residence hall is one facet of RISD’s 2015 Campus Master Plan. One update to the original plan was that RISD engaged NADAAA in the fall of 2016 for a study of the campus’ residential quad. The goals of the study were to develop 500 beds of interconnected first-year housing on the residential quad, to allow for the renovation of Homer and Nickerson Halls to address deferred maintenance while maintaining overall bed count, to create student-centered common spaces, to improve campus and city connections to the residential quad in order to maximize accessibility to and within the residential quad, to address sustainability, and to provide updated space for existing administrative offices.

NADAAA’s work over the academic year included numerous meetings with campus constituents, a student survey, monthly meetings with the campus project team, presentations to the Board of Trustees in October, February and June, development of multiple options that were reduced through the project team, Campus Master Plan Committee and Board meetings to a final scheme that was presented to the Board in June of 2017.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer a new residence hall that so fully supports the education we offer our students,” said Jack Silva, vice president of RISD Campus Services. “Planning the residence hall has been a true collaborative effort and we are pleased to be working again with alumnus Nader Tehrani and to have Shawmut as a partner in leading the project.”

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — UNC Greensboro recently announced that it is moving forward with the construction of a new and sustainable Nursing and Instructional building.

LS3P Associates Ltd. is the Architect-of-Record and SmithGroupJJR is the Design Architect on the project.

Set to make its debut in spring of 2020, UNCG’s Nursing and Instructional Building project includes the demolition of the McIver Building and construction of a new four-story facility that will house the School of Nursing which is currently located in four buildings.

The facility will also provide teaching and flexible laboratory research space for the School of Health and Human Sciences and the Departments of Biology and Chemistry, in addition to providing more space for the School of Nursing, .

In addition to housing 39 labs, 14 classrooms, nine research suites and a community engagement center, the 180,000-square-foot facility is said to be a shining example of sustainable building and design with UNCG currently pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification or higher for the project.

Charlotte-based Rodgers Builders, Inc. is providing construction management, preconstruction, and virtual construction services for the project. Construction includes three components that include demolition of the existing McIver Building, construction of the new Nursing and Instructional building, and construction of the South Chiller Plant, providing capacity for the new building and enhancing reliability of the campus chilled water system.

Builders and designers are now working to incorporate a number of cost-effective and innovative elements that will support the environment as well as health and wellness.

One element includes bioretention and water management. The new building will have a bioretention system, where contaminants and sedimentation will be removed from stormwater runoff. Designers also employed biophilic methods, designing with materials, colors and light in a way that connects people with nature.

Chris Roberts, principal and studio leader at LS3P Associates Ltd., calls it “bringing the outdoors in.”

The building was strategically laid out to avoid critical root zones in existing trees. It’s five-story atrium runs down the middle of the building, creating a lively, open space with natural light and a main staircase, and pedestrian pathways and vegetated pathways located outside of the energy-efficient building.

“A lab building is an energy hog,” said Roberts. “The fact that this building will have labs and classrooms and still be one of the better energy-performing buildings on campus is a big deal.”

Additional eco-friendly features of the new Nursing and Instructional building include:

• Peak energy output from the Photovoltaic panels on the roof that is expected to be only 1 to 2 percent over a year
• Energy-efficiency: LED lights that will be installed throughout the building
• Heat recovery: Exhaust air will preheat unconditioned air entering the building
• Material reuse: Catalpa trees from the McIver Building site were salvaged, milled and treated and will be built into the outdoor classroom
• Vegetated roof: Portions of a roof patio will include natural planted areas to reduce solar heat gain and pre-treat water runoff
• Low-slope high albedo roof design: to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than traditional dark-colored roofs
• Roof pavers: made of recycled materials

“We love to try to incorporate these things but are rarely able to,” said Roberts. “It’s exciting to see so many interventions within one project. I applaud UNCG for such a strong focus on sustainability, and they really embraced these ideas throughout the design.”

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Lincoln School in Providence, an independent college preparatory school offering an all-girls educational program for grades 1st through 12^th, announced the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art STEAM building.

The new facility features a brand new two-story facade, 4,000-square-feet of interdisciplinary learning space, flexible breakout areas and a rotating art gallery.

The main goal of the project was to expand Lincoln School’s offerings as the nation’s only independent school for girls rooted in Quaker values with Rhode Island’s first-ever dedicated STEAM facility for girls.

Through the expansion, Lincoln is positioned to shift the gender balance of women entering STEAM fields. Not only does Lincoln offer a robust STEAM curriculum—including electives in robotics and computer science — but, they also go beyond the classroom to engage in Upper School partnerships with Brown’s School of Engineering, RISD’s School of Architecture, and The Steel Yard.

The STEAM Hub, designed by LLB Architects of Pawtucket, R.I., is quite literally a visual expression of the school’s mantra, “where tradition meets innovation”, according to Vice President of Shawmut Design and Construction, Ron Simoneau.

The addition features a dramatic glass curtainwall facing west with 20 vertical fins, or sun shades, spaced in such a way as to create rolling shade as the sun moves. The modern, curvilinear design allows people outside to see adjacent buildings through the new addition.

The new facility creates new agile classroom space for group collaboration and project-based learning, improve connectivity, all while making the facility more sustainable and resilient.

The chemistry, robotics, and physics rooms are highlighted by enlarged, dynamic group study spaces and a math/engineering collaborative workspace anchors the new addition. All classroom and study spaces are more open, connected and flexible for a myriad of teaching and learning modes. The kitchen was reconfigured to provide a direct flow from the dining room and student lounges to a new student/faculty study space along Butler Avenue that overlooks Blackstone Boulevard and Park.

 “Academic design and construction trends are certainly seeing a shift towards facilities that have stronger collaborative, living-learning, and interdisciplinary amenities, and Lincoln’s new STEAM Hub does exactly that. The facility allows their faculty to guide students in interdisciplinary coursework that gives them the opportunity to learn, explore, and break new ground in their future fields,” said Simoneau.

 The project broke ground on July 1, 2017 and was completed less than a year later with a grand opening on May 3, 2018.

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URBANA, Ohio — Urbana City Schools recently opened the doors to its new elementary and junior high school for new and returning students.

The new Urbana Elementary and Junior High School will serve about 1,500 students from preschool through eighth grade.

According to the Springfield News-Sun, the $37 million project was approved by taxpayers in November 2014. It is reportedly the second building the district has opened in a year; a new high school building was opened in April.

“It’s been a great start to the first day in our new school,” said Superintendent of Urbana City Schools Charles Thiel to the News-Sun. “As I stood out front helping to direct traffic I realized the number of kids and families and adults are all a part of the programs of our schools. We were spread out throughout the city, but when you combined them into one building there is a lot of people that are using our resources and being part of the school program.”

The News-Sun reports that the district pushed back the start date so the building could be finished before the start of school. Students can now reportedly look forward to air conditioning, a large entrance and lobby area, and learning pods divided by grade level.

According to the News-Sun, the district considers the learning pods to be a significant advancement in the building’s design after previously having three buildings that served different grades.

A single pod consists of a cluster of classrooms that support 21st-century teaching trends, a collaboration area, a teacher lounge, a private study area, and locker space for students. All teachers in each grade level have classrooms designated in a particular pod which will allows them to work more closely together.

The school also reportedly has updated security features and has a large cafeteria that can be divided based on the age of students. There is a new gymnasium that is large enough for a regulation-size high school basketball court and new playground equipment that was designed with the help of student council.

An official ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony for the new school will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7.

Reports from the Springfield News-Sun contributed to this story.

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DARLINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — Darlington County School District (DCSD) recently broke ground on the first of three new elementary schools to be constructed in Darlington County.

The DCSD serves over 10,000 students in 23 schools; the district announced back in March that the new school will be built in Darlington on the site of the existing Cain Elementary School, while the other two schools will be located in Hartsville and Lamar.

District officials and the construction team extensively evaluated over 19 sites in Hartsville and eight sites in Lamar before selecting the final locations of the new schools. Lamar’s new school, which will combine Lamar Elementary School and Spaulding Elementary School, will be built on property directly across from the intersection of County Club Road and Lamar Highway. Hartsville’s new elementary school, which will combine Washington Street Elementary School and West Hartsville Elementary School, will be built on Bay Road between Bobo Newsom Highway and Westwinds Drive.

News & Press reports that the new Darlington-area elementary school will combine the student populations of Cain and Brunson-Dargan elementary schools, both of which are over 50 years old, and will be constructed on the current site of Cain Elementary.

The school board reportedly awarded an $18.3 million bid from Edcon Inc., based in Peak, S.C., which was the lowest of five bids submitted. Brownstone Construction group is currently serving as project manager. The Darlington school’s bid is reportedly the first to come before the board. It is also the only one of the three elementary schools to be built on property already owned by the district.

The three schools in Darlington, Hartsville and Lamar will be built simultaneously, according to the News & Press, with the expectation that construction will begin at Cain in September.

According to News 13, the district’s new superintendent says the new school will be built with student safety in mind.

“It shows commitment from the board for Darlington County School District, commitment to the kids and to the communities about progress, so for a new superintendent walking in the door you couldn’t ask for much better than to be able to build new schools for our kids,” said Dr. Tim Newman, DCSD superintendent, to News 13.

Reports from News 13 and News & Press contributed to this story.

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