When complete, the new housing facilities will feature classrooms, study rooms, TV lounges and laundry facilities in a addition to student living spaces. A large patio area, fireplaces and lobbies will accommodate art shows, student events, university functions and various types of entertainment for residents year round, according to a statement by EdR of Memphis, Tenn., the project’s developer.

EdR will complete the project via a private-public partnership with the university. The firm was chosen through a competitive selection process to execute all aspects — including development, financing, construction and management — of the project, which will be the largest in the university’s history, according to a statement by the firm. Upon completion, EdR will operate the residence halls under a 75-year lease with NMU and will manage the facility while NMU will provide residence life services. EdR will finance the approximately $80 million housing development through its ONE Plan, which uses the company’s equity and financial stability to fund projects on university land, according to a statement by the firm.

"I think the enhanced on-campus housing is an incredibly positive, transformative opportunity for [NMU]," said NMU President Fritz Erickson in a statement. "It is going to allow us to greatly strengthen our capabilities to recruit and retain students in today’s highly competitive education environment, enrich student life and address a very serious facilities and maintenance issue."

"University leadership has made it clear that increased recruitment, enrollment and retention of top-level students is a priority at Northern Michigan University," said Tom Trubiana, EdR president, in a statement. "Partnering with NMU provides EdR the opportunity to deliver another on-campus housing community that gives the university both a state-of-the-art home for many of its students and a recruiting tool that will compete with any in the nation."

EdR selected Detroit-based Walbridge to manage construction of the six new residence hall buildings, which were designed by Neumann/Smith Architecture with offices in Detroit and Southfield, Mich. Neumann/Smith is also responsible for the redesign of the campus’ John X. Jamrich Hall — formerly a general use classroom building — into a high-tech, flexible, active learning environment that anticipates LEED BD+C certification.

The post Northern Michigan University to Add 1,200 Beds by 2018 appeared first on School Construction News.

“Now that we have completed the building’s structure, we get to start on the intricate details that will make this innovative living-learning center a home for UF students,” said Chris Gregory, project manager at Brasfield & Gorrie, in a statement.

An entrepreneurial-based academic residence community, Infinity Hall is the result of a public-private partnership between the university and the Jacksonville office of Shanghai-based real estate development and construction management firm Signet Development. Through a services and affiliation agreement with the University of Florida, Signet Development will develop, finance, own and manage Infinity Hall, representing the first privatized development within the 40-acre community known as Innovation Square.

UF’s Innovation Square is an urban research district that brings business, science and academia together with residential life in an effort to foster innovation and strengthen the community’s economic and cultural viability. As Infinity Hall is geared specifically toward forward-thinking students, and with its close proximity to campus amenities and academic resources, both UF officials and Signet Development representatives hope it will serve as a birthplace for new ideas and innovations.

“Infinity Hall is the first private sector finance project to arise from the vision of the public-private partnership that defines Innovation Square,” said UF President Bernie Machen in a statement. "Infinity Hall is the first residence hall in Gainesville — and among only a handful in the nation — designed for young entrepreneurs who mean so much to our future as a community and as a country."

Different from other campus housing facilities, Infinity Hall will offer all the tools and resources necessary for students to begin their entrepreneurial journeys. The interdisciplinary living and learning center will serve as a connector between students’ academic coursework, internship experiences, professional and peer mentorship and experiential learning, creating an environment that supports academics as well as business incubation. It will also be the first residence hall that allows students to use university housing as the base of operations for a small business.

When completed, the five-story, $23 million Infinity Hall will house more than 300 UF students in eight single rooms, 16 single suites, 48 double suites and 20 quad-suite residences. Lounges, kitchens, laundry facilities and recreation rooms will also be included. In addition to these residential amenities, Infinity Hall will offer a number of collaboration spaces and teaching areas on the ground floor, as well as a 3-D printer, to promote idea generation and creativity.

Infinity Hall was designed by the Atlanta office of global architecture firm Perkins + Will. Work on the building began in October 2014, and the project is currently on track for a fall 2015 opening.

The post University of Florida Residence to Support Entrepreneurs appeared first on School Construction News.

Visitors to this modern and well-designed school are first greeted by a small stand of solar trees. These bright blue structures are reminiscent of the surrounding greenery, and quickly inform guests that this school is different. The differences become even more apparent when guests get their first look at the building dashboard, an interactive, visual representation of the school’s various sustainability systems. This easy-to-use touch-screen monitor is full of icons representing everything from the school’s photovoltaic system to a thorough breakdown of its water use. Everyone from students to staff can access the information and get a better understanding of how the building uses energy.

Raleigh, N.C.-based SfL+a Architects designed the innovative school in two phases. The school district first approached the architecture firm roughly six years ago, in the midst of the recession, with plans to build a more traditional school structure. When funding sources weren’t available, the plans were shelved. However, SfL+a saw a unique solution and proposed a public-private partnership. This brought in private sector financing tools, allowing the school to benefit from energy rebates and tax credits as well as some income-based credits, said SfL+a Principal and Project Leader Barry Buckman, AIA. The firm’s sister company, FirstFloor, will lease the land from Hoke County while still maintaining ownership of the facility.

The PPP also allowed the school to shift the original design and become a model of green construction, explained Buckman. “It really became a creative solution for [the district],” said Buckman. “They understood the difficulty they were in, in terms of financing a school in a downturned economy. I think they were appreciative and excited about the idea of thinking outside the box.”

Sandy Grove Assistant Principle Shawn O’Connor also supported the PPP model. “There is an unwillingness to pour a lot of money into education these days, and this is a way we can still give kids a quality, cutting-edge education without assuming a lot of cost,” he said.

From there, the move from a more traditional school design to one worthy of LEED attention happened quickly. SfL+a Architects first streamlined the building envelope, trimming more than 15,000 square feet off the traditional design. “It was very important for us to reduce the overall size by making an efficient layout. A lot of that savings came out of circulation and flow area, not out of any teaching or program spaces,” added Buckman.

Thanks also to heavy-duty insulation, high r-value windows and electric car charging stations, Sandy Grove sets a high bar in terms of energy performance and efficiency. The SfL+a team integrated LED lighting throughout and installed a geothermal heating and cooling system.

Meanwhile, the roof is covered in more than 2,300 solar panels, allowing the 75,000-square-foot school to surpass net-zero standards, insuring it will never have a utility bill. Instead, the school will actually return power to the grid, as it creates 30 percent to 40 percent more power than it currently needs. In all, the school is slated to save the Hoke County School District roughly $35 million over the next four decades, $16 million of which will likely come from energy costs alone. “In terms of a project that generates its own energy, this is really cutting edge,” said Buckman.

Despite these many green features, SfL+a wasn’t quite satisfied. “An element we would have loved to have brought to this facility in a better way is daylighting. If we can daylight the interiors in a really integrated manner we don’t have to rely on artificial lighting to the degree that we are with this project,” said Buckman.” However, according to O’Connor, lighting conditions have proved ideal for the school’s art classes. “Our art teacher has utilized the natural light when students are learning about perspective and shadow. She’s been able to use the school itself as a learning example,” said O’Connor.
Sustainability efforts continued outside thanks to Crawford Engineering of Fayetteville, N.C. Though Crawford has worked on multiple education facilities, Sandy Grove was the firm’s first sustainably built project of this scale. Kevin Lindsay, PE of Crawford was largely responsible for the civil engineering and landscape design, and worked hard to minimize curbs, gutters, collection structures and impervious surfaces so common in most school landscaping projects. This in turn minimized the concentrate of run off, allowing for greater absorption.

The school was constructed by Pembroke, N.C.-based Metcon in less than one year. The end result is a compact, three-winged educational complex unlike anything the small, largely rural North Carolina community had seen before. “I think it shocked a lot of people,” said O’Connor. “It is a very unique looking school compared to the surrounding areas, but eventually as people gain more knowledge about how it works, this school will serve as a hub for the community.”

O’Connor added that the building itself has become a very valuable learning tool. “The kids see it as a living, breathing thing because we’re able to use this dashboard and get real time information about it. It’s not simply a lesson; it’s something they’re surrounded by and immersed in on a daily basis.”

The building, which also includes unique learning tools such as smart boards, an exploratory lab, media center and mobile computing capabilities, is also fitting for the school’s educational focus. “We infuse our curriculum with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math),” said O’Connor. “Even in language arts and social studies we see that science and technology component because every classroom is using our dashboard as a reference point. The teachers have really taken it upon themselves to run with this idea and apply it to their own disciplines.”

Sandy Grove recently completed its first full semester, and students and teachers alike have adapted well to the school’s various technologies. It also appears that all sustainability systems are working as planned. “At the moment, the school is exceeding its energy-efficiency goal,” said Buckman, “However, we average over a full year. We need to see all the conditions in every season, but we are ahead of what we had modeled for the building to perform.”

He adds that although the building is living up to its promises, SfL+a’s job is far from over. “We are constantly monitoring and tweaking so that we can conserve as much energy as possible. We will be doing that for the life of the building.”

That lifespan generally stands at 40 years for a typical school building. However, the firm added some built-in features to allow the school to expand and flexibly use the space into the future, allowing it to serve up to 650 students as opposed to the current 600.

Although the newness is beginning to wear off, students and staff maintain a great sense of pride in their environmentally friendly school. “The superintendent and the principal just can’t stop praising what this has meant to the students, staff and to the community,” said Buckman. “It’s very rewarding.”

The post N.C. School Sets New Standard for Sustainability appeared first on School Construction News.

Created in 1881, Yonkers Public Schools is the fourth largest district in the state of New York. The most recent demographic study showed that the school district is now almost 4,000 seats short and by 2017 it will be 7,000 seats short.

About three years ago, the district looked at ways to solve its ongoing construction capital problem. With 38 schools with an average age of 73 years, six schools more than 90 years old and one school more than 120 years old, the buildings are rundown. Capital projects have been under-funded the last few decades and much maintenance has been deferred.

Yonkers conducted a building condition survey in 2005 that disclosed the district needed close to $300 million in repairs; after investing $80 million into the schools, a 2010 survey showed the number was closer to $400 million.

“We just were not able to catch up on the repairs that were needed in the district and we needed to find a better way,” said Bernard Pierorazio, superintendent of Yonkers Public Schools. “We looked at a strategy that would not only bring us new buildings, but refurbish our older buildings and provide the very best education facilities for our children.”

The P3 ideal — public-private partnership — uses a design-build-finance-maintain model that offers availability payments to provide motivation for the private partner to make renovations and necessary updates.

“We’ve got a $1 billion problem to deal with; and we had to bite the bullet and find a way to move forward with it,” said Joe Bracchitta, chief administrative officer. “We had to think outside of the box, and that’s what brought us to the idea of public/private partnerships.”

The traditional model that the school district had been using was taking too long and costing too much. As the district considered its options, it became aware of public-private partnerships in school districts.

The first step was to create a request for proposal (RFP) to secure advisors with global experience — Macquarie Capital (finance), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (legal), and URS Corporation (technical). These advisors will provide guidelines regarding how the project should be phased and what the availability payment will be.

Once the feasibility report is complete, Yonkers will put out a request for quotation (RFQ) to obtain companies’ specs, which will allow for a short-list RFP. The private-sector partners will be selected based on the RFP.

If the project were facilitated as public only, the district would sell bonds to the public and manage the contractors, construction, and maintenance.

“One thing we found out is we are very good at educating children, and we’re very good at determining what our buildings should do and what they should look like,” said Bracchitta. “But we are not efficient at all in terms of the construction and the on-going maintenance of these buildings. We are not designed to be building caretakers; we are designed to be educators and leaders in education.”

This creates a high amount of risk for the district, since it is not well versed in managing aspects such as construction or maintenance or contractors. The private-sector partners work with all of those aspects every day, and do so efficiently, says Bracchitta. Therefore, the public/private partnership shifts the risks to the private sector and allows the district to retain control and ownership of the buildings. The district stays in control of instructional programs and through the availability payment, it ensures the private sector properly maintains the buildings and provides the output needed.

“If it [P3] works, it’s a perfect marriage. It allows us to maintain the risks on the items we’re good at and give the risks to the private sector, for a price, that they are good at maintaining,” said Bracchitta.

The initial plan contemplated three phases over 15 years, but additional phases may occur in order for the district to more easily digest the costs.

The Yonkers project was ranked in the second edition of Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition, showcasing the World’s 100 Most Innovative Urban Infrastructure Programs, announced by KPMG, an audit, tax and advisory firm, at the World Cities Summit in Singapore. Judges select projects based on their scale, feasibility, complexity, innovation and impact on society. Yonkers is one of ten projects selected from across the globe for the education category and is the only one based in the United States.

“We were ecstatic that the group at KPMG considered the Yonkers project. It was completely a surprise,” said Pierorazio. “It was mid-June when we were notified; we were actually notified a bit late because of an errant email address. So we got a call from KPMG, discussing this and we were just so overwhelmed. We were extremely excited about it.”

The recognition from the KPMG list will only help the Yonkers project, explained Pierorazio.

“It pushes the project not only into the local limelight, but the national and international. It will open more doors for us in terms of possibility for us moving forward,” said Pierorazio.

The post Public-Private Partnership Comes to Yonkers appeared first on School Construction News.

Created in 1881, Yonkers Public Schools is the fourth largest district in the state of New York. The most recent demographic study showed that the school district is now almost 4,000 seats short and by 2017 it will be 7,000 seats short.

About three years ago, the district looked at ways to solve its ongoing construction capital problem. With 38 schools with an average age of 73 years, six schools more than 90 years old and one school more than 120 years old, the buildings are rundown. Capital projects have been under-funded the last few decades and much maintenance has been deferred.

Yonkers conducted a building condition survey in 2005 that disclosed the district needed close to $300 million in repairs; after investing $80 million into the schools, a 2010 survey showed the number was closer to $400 million.

“We just were not able to catch up on the repairs that were needed in the district and we needed to find a better way,” said Bernard Pierorazio, superintendent of Yonkers Public Schools. “We looked at a strategy that would not only bring us new buildings, but refurbish our older buildings and provide the very best education facilities for our children.”

The P3 ideal — public-private partnership — uses a design-build-finance-maintain model that offers availability payments to provide motivation for the private partner to make renovations and necessary updates.

“We’ve got a $1 billion problem to deal with; and we had to bite the bullet and find a way to move forward with it,” said Joe Bracchitta, chief administrative officer. “We had to think outside of the box, and that’s what brought us to the idea of public/private partnerships.”

The traditional model that the school district had been using was taking too long and costing too much. As the district considered its options, it became aware of public/private partnerships in school districts.

The first step was to create a request for proposal (RFP) to secure advisors with global experience — Macquarie Capital (finance), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (legal), and URS Corporation (technical). These advisors will provide guidelines regarding how the project should be phased and what the availability payment will be.

Once the feasibility report is complete, Yonkers will put out a request for quotation (RFQ) to obtain companies’ specs, which will allow for a short-list RFP. The private-sector partners will be selected based on the RFP.

If the project were facilitated as public only, the district would sell bonds to the public and manage the contractors, construction, and maintenance.

“One thing we found out is we are very good at educating children, and we’re very good at determining what our buildings should do and what they should look like,” said Bracchitta. “But we are not efficient at all in terms of the construction and the on-going maintenance of these buildings. We are not designed to be building caretakers; we are designed to be educators and leaders in education.”

This creates a high amount of risk for the district, since it is not well versed in managing aspects such as construction or maintenance or contractors. The private-sector partners work with all of those aspects every day, and do so efficiently, says Bracchitta. Therefore, the public/private partnership shifts the risks to the private sector and allows the district to retain control and ownership of the buildings. The district stays in control of instructional programs and through the availability payment, it ensures the private sector properly maintains the buildings and provides the output needed.

“If it [P3] works, it’s a perfect marriage. It allows us to maintain the risks on the items we’re good at and give the risks to the private sector, for a price, that they are good at maintaining,” said Bracchitta.

The initial plan contemplated three phases over 15 years, but additional phases may occur in order for the district to more easily digest the costs.

The Yonkers project was ranked in the second edition of Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition, showcasing the World’s 100 Most Innovative Urban Infrastructure Programs, announced by KPMG, an audit, tax and advisory firm, at the World Cities Summit in Singapore. Judges select projects based on their scale, feasibility, complexity, innovation and impact on society. Yonkers is one of ten projects selected from across the globe for the education category and is the only one based in the United States.

“We were ecstatic that the group at KPMG considered the Yonkers project. It was completely a surprise,” said Pierorazio. “It was mid-June when we were notified; we were actually notified a bit late because of an errant email address. So we got a call from KPMG, discussing this and we were just so overwhelmed. We were extremely excited about it.”

The recognition from the KPMG list will only help the Yonkers project, explained Pierorazio.

“It pushes the project not only into the local limelight, but the national and international. It will open more doors for us in terms of possibility for us moving forward,” said Pierorazio.

The post Public-Private Partnership Comes to Yonkers appeared first on School Construction News.