The project, scheduled to officially kick off this summer, involves two buildings: Bird Hall, one of the college’s original buildings, and the Nicholas Center.

Upon project finalization, Bird Hall will house the college’s Nursing and EMS/Paramedic programs, allowing faculty and students to share state-of-the-art equipment and take part in cooperative experiences that will mimic real-world interactions. The renovated Bird Hall will also feature three new science labs.

The Nicholas Center revamp includes an expansion, which will nearly double the building’s current size. The 25,503-square-foot addition will be a new workforce center operated by the Community College Workforce Alliance — the workforce development partnership between JTCC and Reynolds Community College.

In addition to classroom spaces, the new workforce center will feature a spacious, flexible lab, which can be configured to suit a wide array of training programs. The renovated Nicholas Center will also boast a large conference room that can be used for workforce training and other functions; new collaborative spaces for Tyler students and the Office of Student Activities; a larger bookstore with a café; and additional general classroom and office space.

“At the heart of Tyler’s Chester Campus renovation project is workforce development,” said Holly Walker, public relations manager for JTCC. “The renovations to Bird Hall, one of our original buildings, and the renovation and expansion of the Nicholas Center will allow us to enhance and expand our programs that prepare students for the in-demand jobs of today and tomorrow and that support the workforce needs of area business and industry.”

The Chester Campus renovation project is expected to cost about $34 million and take about 14 months to complete. The architecture for the renovation is overseen by the national firm Grimm + Parker (G+P), while the construction will be handled by Cleveland-based Donley’s.

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HYATTSVILLE, Md. — Prince George’s County Public Schools completed the construction of the newly renovated Fairmont Heights High School in Hyattsville in September 2017. In addition to upgrading technological aspects of the school, the new building is pursuing LEED Gold certification for its sustainable building standards.

Grimm + Parker Architects of Calverton, Md., was selected as the architect for the project, with Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., serving as the general contractor. The project began in April 2015 with a budget of $73.5 million.

The new 193,213-square-foot high school replaced the old facility that was built in 1950 and no longer met the educational standards of Prince George’s County, according to Jonathan Hill, senior associate at Grimm + Parker. “It was inadequate in condition and technology, so we replaced it with a 21st educational facility that is on the leading edge of technological and environmental public school construction,” said Hill.

The building is organized by grouping the major academic clusters in a classroom bar that has its frontage along major public spaces. These spaces include a 10,000-square-foot auditorium with two full-size practice courts and a main competition court with seating for 1,200. In addition, there is a 5,000-square-foot dining hall, with four serving lines, and a gymnasium. These spaces face the back of the site and provide improved layouts that maximize the potential for usage by different community groups, according to Hill.

These elements are organized on either side of a 20-foot high main corridor that has substantial clerestory and curtain wall on a north-facing frontage that connects the car and bus loops and accesses administration, media center spaces and the courtyard. Additionally, the high school’s new athletic facilities include a soccer field, baseball field and athletic support amenities.

Fairmont Heights has a number of sustainable features that are likely to earn it LEED Gold certification. An underground cistern captures rainwater and safely treats it to then recycle the water in the restrooms for toilet flushing. A geothermal well field helps to maintain a constant temperature from which to heat and cool the building, saving over 30 percent energy when compared with a baseline building. On two roofs between the classroom and public space wings of the buildings stretch fully-planted vegetated roofs, visible from corridors and classroom spaces.  

In addition, pervious paving in the parking lots filter and slow down stormwater and recharge the aquifer, according to Amy Upton, principal and leader of environmental design at Grimm+Parker. In addition to the pervious paving, rain gardens and bioswales around the site, a large, pre-cast stormpod detention system underground stores and treats stormwater runoff.  

Fairmont Heights is committed to integrating the sustainable features of the building and site into lessons taught at the Environmental Sciences Academy (ESA), according to Upton. “The high school is currently working with ESA to develop graphics for the interactive energy dashboard to explain what’s saving energy and conserving resources on the roof, in the walls and underground,” said Upton.

The interior learning spaces are bright, airy and daylit. Clerestory windows in the gymnasium bring in even daylight without the glare, and skylights in the media center and corridor nodes bring daylight deeper into this large high school, according to Upton. Enhanced acoustic design strategies optimize reverberation and noise reduction as well as minimizing background noise and sound transmission.   

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CALVERTON, Md. — September is traditionally the month for Green Apple Day of Service — an international USGBC event that draws forth volunteer projects to transform schools into safe, healthy and sustainable learning environments. Grimm + Parker Architects (G+P) in Calverton has participated in Green Apple Days since the event’s inception in 2012 at a number of schools in Maryland and Virginia, with this year being no exception.

Over the years, G+P has hosted Green Apple Days with the Ducketts Lane Elementary School in Elkridge, Md., in the Howard County Public School District (HCPSS); the Wilson Wims Elementary School in Clarksburg, Md., in the Montgomery Public School District (MPSD); and the Discovery STEM Elementary School in the Newport News public school district in Virginia.

In addition to its participation in Green Apple Days, encouraging environmental literacy and community engagement have been a major part of G+P’s mission as an architectural firm for many years. The firm has been partnering with nearby school districts since 2003, when a discussion and early meetings with Montgomery County’s Great Seneca Creek Elementary School took place, according to Amy Upton, AIA, principal and director of Environmental Design at G+P. Since 2006, further collaborations have been “ramping up” with Ducketts Lane Elementary School.

G+P has created programs that educate teachers, students and the community about sustainability in their buildings as well as programs that enhance the school with interactive teaching tools both for new construction and schools that have been open a few years.

“As a school continues to operate, there can be a disconnect from the original intentions around sustainable operations, and refreshers are often valuable,” said Upton. “Sustainable construction and LEED design are important, but if you don’t do educational commissioning for sustainability, you miss an opportunity to leverage the sustainable gains that you have made in design and construction.”

G+P designed the Ducketts Lane Elementary School in 2010 and saw it through to construction until it opened its doors in 2013. The school earned LEED Gold certification for its achievements in energy- efficient design and construction. G+P worked with HCPSS on its sustainability goals from the concept phase, and designed the building and site to maximize opportunities for environmental literacy and tie-ins for future lessons. G+P met with the principal of the school before hiring staff to explain sustainability goals of the project, led construction tours and engaged staff in the development of sustainable signage.

Once the school opened in 2013, G+P partnered with staff for the school’s first Green Apple Day of Service in 2013, which won the Best of Green Schools Community Event award from USGBC’s Center for Green Schools. The school continued hosting these events every year since. Additionally, G+P has hosted professional development days for teachers at Ducketts Lane, taught a geothermal lesson to the school in 2016 and will host a booth at the school’s Healthy Harvest Festival in 2017, with green feature games with dry-erase dice and Earth Day Prizes as well as earth-themed face painting.

“Amy Upton provided professional development opportunities and traveled to our school on multiple occasions. She helped train teachers on how to use the site in their classroom such as the water cycle — living and non-living — erosion and energy,” said Katherine Kidd, second grade teacher at Ducketts Lane. “She was instrumental in aligning the curriculum with the environmental features of the building and taught us how the building works. We have truly enjoyed the partnership with Amy and Grimm + Parker and look forward to working with her and the team each school year.”

The LEED Gold Wilson Wims Elementary School, also designed by G+P, is a 91,000-square-foot two-story school that opened in 2014 and was designed to accommodate 740 pre-K through fifth-grade students. Special sustainable features of Wilson Wims include the use of educational signage inside and outside the building, and include visible features such as sunshades, lighting controls in classrooms and dual- flush toilets.

In addition to hosting a Green Apple Day of Service at the school in 2014 and teaching geothermal lessons to the school in 2015 and 2016, G+P set up a construction tour and “green feature charrette” with teachers and first and fourth graders the winter before the school opened. G+P explained some green features to them such as geothermal well fields, vegetative roofs and the use of recycled materials.

Check out the entire article in the September/October issue of School Construction News.

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BALTIMORE — Construction on the Fort Worthington Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore reached substantial completion in August, with a ribbon cutting held on Aug. 23, just in time for the first day of school on Sept. 5. The new facility replaces the old Fort Worthington Elementary School, previously located on the same site. The design was developed to meet the new educational specifications of an expanded population of grades K–8. The completed product of the new school provides a cost-effective, energy-efficient and safe facility to meet the school’s needs.

Calverton, Md.-based Grimm+Parker served as the architect on the project, with the local offices of Gilbane Building Company serving as the general contractor. The 103,365-square-foot facility has a capacity to hold 700 students and was completed with a budget of $37 million. Design of the facility took place between October 2014 and January 2016, with the start of construction in May 2016.

All classrooms are equipped with several technology features including short throw projectors, which will have an input station located behind the teacher’s desk that allow for various inputs including computer, document camera and USB devices. Sound enhancement systems are installed in each classroom, which include a wearable microphone for teachers as well as a handheld microphone for students and guests. This system also can be integrated with hearing impaired devices.

The “cafetorium” can hold 400 students at a time, with three lunch periods to accommodate the entire student body, and is equipped with projection screens and projector for presentations and events. Sound-dampening devices were installed to reduce sound transfer to other spaces in the school, to maintain as peaceful a dining and school environment as possible. Fort Worthington is a project-based school, and as such, the tech lab is fit out with laboratory casework, power reels in the ceiling, and electrical fit out for fabrication equipment such as 3D Printers, CNC machines and saws. The school grounds include a playing field, an outdoor basketball court, two playgrounds as well as parking.

Additionally, the school includes community learning and meeting areas, flexible office spaces, and mental health and personal care facilities. The building is Wi-Fi enabled and has a cell phone and emergency repeater system — a distributed antennae system (DAS) — to allow for communication in the event of an emergency. In addition, the building is configured in a way that it can be used as a FEMA shelter after an emergency.

The building was designed to meet LEED Silver requirements. In addition to having LED lighting throughout the building, the new facility possesses bioretention facilities to provide stormwater management and educational opportunities. There is high albedo roofing throughout the complex to reduce urban heat island effect, as well as roof equipment located in such a way as to allow space for solar panels in the future. Daylight harvesters are used to reduce the output of the light fixtures near the classroom’s windows. On bright days, these fixtures can be dimmed, and all classrooms are equipped with manual shades to permit low-light instruction.

All classrooms are heated and cooled by variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems, which allow the units to scale power consumption to the needs of the space. In addition, each classroom has a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) which brings in semi-conditioned fresh air into the space. High-efficiency mechanical systems were installed to transfer heating and cooling energy between rooms, and low-flow plumbing fixtures were installed throughout the facility for reduced water consumption.

“Fort Worthington is the first of approximately 22 schools that will be newly constructed or modernized in Baltimore under the 21st Century Schools Program,” said Paul Bradshaw, principal architect at Grimm+Parker. “The school represents the commitment of Baltimore City to the design of schools based on the leading edge of technology and sustainability, principles of student engagement and collaboration that serve as community hubs and foster community engagement.”

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