TAMPA, Fla.—January 6, 2021— On a compact school campus in one of Tampa, Florida’s oldest neighborhoods, JE Dunn Construction has completed the restoration of the Tampa Heights Elementary Magnet School building, destroyed by fire in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Bridging the building’s 100-year history and architectural significance with the elements of modern school building design, the $21 million project delivered flexible classrooms and common spaces and other learning environments created to promote student interaction and collaboration. The project salvaged and reused the existing brick façade and constructed a new structure within the existing footprint. FleischmanGarcia is the architect of record.

The project was completed in November 2020 and officially reopened on January 4, 2021 with classes resuming to welcome students and faculty.

With a three-story staircase at its center, the 53,000-square-foot new building — was designed to meet modern Building and Fire Code standards —among its features are a “learning corridor” with display areas, seating and writable surfaces, as well as dining area adaptable as a multipurpose room. The facility has 398 students learning stations.

JE Dunn Construction, founded in 1924, is one of the largest general building contractors in the United States, providing construction management services through 23 offices nationwide, and self-perform services in select locations. The company has performed work in Florida since 1989, and re-established a Florida office in 2015, in Tampa.

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SEMINOLE, Fla.—JE Dunn Construction is progressing on an 8,797-square-foot, new classroom building and accessory barn structure that will expand the veterinary sciences program at Richard O. Jacobson Technical High School in Seminole.

The classroom building will consist of two veterinarian classrooms, veterinarian laboratory with dog wash, a science classroom, group restrooms, interior spaces for rabbits, cats, dogs, a common washroom, laundry and custodial areas, a shower, lockers for student farm attire, and mechanical and electrical service rooms. A covered architectural canopy extending on the front of the classroom building will provide seating and gathering areas.

The classroom building will open up to a large barn, a ventilated but nonconditioned pre-engineered metal building structure providing stalls for large animals. A covered area beyond the barn will provide for outdoor animal interaction and teaching.

The project for Pinellas County Schools also calls for sitework and utilities upgrades; the project’s scheduled date of completion is January 2022 and the architect of record is Ranon & Partners, Inc.

JE Dunn Construction, founded in 1924, is one of the largest general building contractors in the U.S., providing construction management services through 23 offices nationwide, and self-perform services in select locations. The company has performed work in Florida since 1989, and re-established a Florida office in 2015 in Tampa.

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ATLANTA — The national firm of JE Dunn Construction was chosen by Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to begin converting an existing middle school into a new elementary school, Harper-Archer Elementary, for the school system’s Douglass Cluster of physically close elementary, middle and high schools.

The $7.8 million project will cover roughly 140,000 square feet, transforming classrooms to meet elementary curriculum standards, interior upgrades and adjustments to HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems. The transformation follows the Atlanta Board of Education voting 7-2 to approve changes to regional schools, including consolidations and closures, at a meeting in March 2017, as reported by the Atlanta Patch.

While some student parents are upset because of the changes, according to the Atlanta Patch, APS Superintendent Meria J. Carstarphen stood by the decision, saying that impacted schools had low enrollment, and students weren’t keeping up academically with much of the district. She added that the realignments would save teachers from exhaustion and improve test scores and described the transition plan as  “academically based and child focused.”

APS is one of the largest school districts in the state of Georgia, serving approximately 50,000 students across 106 learning sites, according to a statement. The district is organized into nine K-12 clusters with 87 schools, 17 charter schools and two city-wide single-gender academies. The elementary students whose schools were closed will be moved to the new Harper-Archer Elementary to begin a new academic year. The renovation will bring the students a new media center and new STEM labs, with graphics and bright colors in the finishes to appeal to the young students.

Construction is scheduled to begin in June 2018, with Phase I and III operating over summer vacation, while Phase II will occur with the eighth grade students still in the building. The construction team will have to coordinate the new work with years of past renovations. The project is scheduled to be completed for the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

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