CORAL GABLES, Fla.—A new village for student living is coming to the University of Miami in Coral Gables after construction delays related to the covid-19 pandemic. Construction on the Centennial Village was first announced in January 2019 and was ongoing until the shutdown of March 2020.

But 2022 appears to be the year the residential complex will finally be realized at the Florida college. In the months ahead, the existing Hecht Residential College is due for a date with the wrecking ball to make more room for Centennial Village, which will be home to hundreds of first-year Miami students.

During the work stoppage necessitated by the pandemic, officials from the University of Miami continued to confer with the project architects to audit the work undertaken thus far, as well as look ahead to what might be done differently moving forward.

Accordingly, the initial plan was for a complex with four residential colleges that could serve as home to 1,700 first-year students. The revised blueprints will add a fifth residential college, thereby upping the number of students who can live at the complex to over 2,000.

Architecture firms VMDO Architects and Zyscovich Architects, both of Coral Gables, are working in tandem with Gryon LLC, who is providing preconstruction services on the $335 million project. Other advisers on the project include Brailsford & Dunlavey. Coastal Construction will oversee certain aspects of both demolition and construction as well.

In a statement to School Construction News, VMDO Principal Joe Atkins added the following:

“The architectural expression of Centennial Village draws inspiration from the rich modernism of campus, the local and international style and culture of Miami, and the institutional aspiration of hemispheric leadership.”

“We are delighted to resume progress toward completion of our multi-year plan to modernize our housing on campus,” Jacqueline A. Travisano, executive vice president for business and finance and chief operating officer at the university, said in a recent statement. “When the project was paused, our team used that time to re-evaluate our initial plan and make some enhancements to its scope and timeline.”

According to the revised project schedule, the Hecht Residential College will close by May, with the Stanford Residential College also signing off for the final time by May 2024. A few months later, Centennial Village’s first two residential colleges will be ready for residents, who will enjoy a new dining commons. The final three colleges are now envisioned to be finished in time for the fall of 2026—for the university’s centennial.

“Reordering the phases of the project is beneficial for many reasons,” Jessica Brumley, vice president for facilities operations and planning, said in a recent statement. “For example, the revised sequence brings a new dining hall to resident students two years earlier than anticipated and creates a more compact construction site to limit the disruption on the surrounding campus area.”

Centennial Village is the second phase of the university’s plan to re-envision its campus not only for its upcoming centennial, but beyond. Collectively, the architects and contractors are working toward LEED Gold Certification on the residence halls.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Although it won’t be completed until the spring of 2023, Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Advanced Technical Training Center will be the first higher-education building in the state of Virginia to be net zero energy. When it opens, the Advanced Technical Training Center will be among a select few community college facilities across the nation that are net-zero.

The $21 million Advanced Technical Training Center will include robotics and forensics laboratories, instructional spaces as well as areas devoted to advanced manufacturing courses. Among its amenities will be a cafeteria, veterans resources center and a commons area for students. Furthermore, it will have office spaces dedicated to career advice, student services and admissions. The center will also boast a large event space whose area melds with the outdoors so that public programs can be held both indoors and outdoors.

In addition to its energy-forward paradigm, the center will offer courses and programs that will train community college students for the trade careers of tomorrow. PVCC aims to have the new center be an anchor for the greater Charlottesville community.

VMDO Architects, which is based in Charlottesville, has previously designed other net zero energy educational facilities, including the Discovery Elementary School in Arlington, Va., which is the world’s first LEED Zero-certified school, and the Alice West Fleet Elementary School, also in Arlington.

“In their focus on student success, community colleges are innovative training grounds and important contributors to local and regional economies,” Joe Atkins, principal at VMDO Architects, said recently. “It’s so rewarding to see PVCC explore net zero energy as a learning opportunity that will prepare students for future workforce and career opportunities.”

Additionally, officials at PVCC said that their community college is excited to lead the way in energy efficiency at their campus, as well as to be an example for other campuses—and indeed, all buildings—throughout Virginia as they continue to train professionals to work in the green economy of tomorrow.

“We are so pleased to be leading the way by constructing this net zero energy building which will become the centerpiece of our beautiful campus,” said PVCC President Frank Friedman in a recent statement.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has pledged that by 2050, the commonwealth will be getting 100 percent of its necessary energy from renewable sources.

Piedmont Virginia Community College was founded in 1972, and primarily serves commuter students in Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties in Central Virginia. It is one of 23 community colleges that are part of the Virginia Community College System.

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The post NJ Voters Approve School Construction Projects appeared first on School Construction News.

Approximately $50.8 million in total school construction was brought to the ballot in Atlantic, Bergen, Camden, Essex, Morris and Salem counties. The referendums presented will receive no state financial aid.

“That’s pretty quiet,” said Mike Yaple, public affairs officer with the New Jersey School Boards Association. “We’ve seen years with two dozen maybe three dozen construction proposals.”

March 12 is one of five dates each year that districts may present a referendum to voters. Since the economic downturn, Yaple said, construction referendums have become fewer, less expensive and with more immediacy than in years past.

However, the largest referendum in the lineup passed. In a close vote of 1,446 to 1,257, the voters of Livingston passed an $18.2 million referendum to construct additions to the district’s five elementary schools and bring full ADA compliance to Livingston High School.

“Livingston residents take great pride in their public schools and they made a long-term commitment to their excellence by the passage of this referendum,” said Brad Draeger, superintendent of Livingston Public Schools in a statement.

Construction for the project is to begin early next year.

Other proposals, such as the $17.5 million project to replace athletic fields turf, bleachers, track fencing and field houses at Hanover Park Regional in Morris County, fell by the wayside.

The approval of construction in Livingston coincides with trends that typically pass over athletic renovations and favor construction or renovation for academic purposes, Yaple said.

“The closer you are to the classroom, the more likely that voters will approve it,” he said.

Weymouth Township of Atlantic County approved a $980,000 referendum to make mechanical and electrical renovations to the township’s elementary school. Bergen County voters passed a $3.3 million bond to construct an athletic field complex including track, multipurpose athletic field, storage, restrooms and a concession stand. And Camden voters approved a $3 million renovation or replacement project for three school roofs.

Yaple said that though some counties are lucky, some New Jersey schools are in serious need of repairs, upgrades and renovations. Efforts to renovate schools becomes much different when the state allocates zero funding and voters are asked to approve a major undertaking when the economy is still struggling, he said.

“The message to voters is if you’re going to approve this you’re going to go on your own and pay for it by your local property taxes,” Yaple said.

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