ORLANDO—General contractor Balfour Beatty has completed work on Lake Highland Preparatory School’s Porter Family Center for Innovation & Academics, designed by SchenkelShultz Architecture. The 14-month-long, 71,000-square-foot project replaces the campus’s former Johnston and Hale Halls.

The first floor features the school’s new student center, which includes the Scott Family Commons, Kind Family Library and Vivar Student Union. Administrative offices and counseling centers are also on the ground floor. The building is home to the Innovation Institute and Carmany Family Innovation Hub, a two-story, makerspace that includes areas devoted to engineering, robotics, computer science, physics and virtual reality. Meanwhile, the third floor contains the Morsi Mathematics Institute, and the fourth floor is the home for the school’s Center for Literary Arts program for coursework in English and language arts. Finally, the top floor features the Starling Gallery for meetings, events and other activities.

On the exterior, the Steinmetz Family Innovation Courtyard and the Jackson Breezeway will take ample advantage of the Florida sunshine and LHP’s location on the lakefront for students and faculty to enjoy.

“We are grateful to our construction partner Balfour Beatty for their outstanding work as general contractor of the Porter Family Center for Innovation & Academics,” Lake Highland President Jim McIntyre said of the work. “Our school’s bold dream to build an academic center unparalleled in our region has come to life, and the remarkable learning and teaching there are producing innovative, talented, and inspired leaders who will change the world.”

“The Porter Family Center for Innovation & Academics is a stunning facility strategically built and designed to promote an enhanced learning experience for students in Central Florida,” added Scott Skidelsky, Balfour Beatty president in the Southeast. “Balfour Beatty is proud to partner with Lake Highland, its donors, and industry partners to deliver this state-of-the-art learning space for the future generations of tomorrow.”

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SARASOTA, Fla.—Booker High School’s Visual Performing Arts (VPA) Center is being expanded by SchenkelShultz Architecture to give the venue a whole new look.

SchenkelShultz’s plans entail expanding the lobby so that it can function as its own event and exhibition space. The firm will also be completely redesigning the theater to add a tiered orchestra level as well as a new balcony. A new black box theater will be added, as will a green room, classrooms and a costume shop. Sightlines within the theater will be improved and enhancements made to the space’s acoustics as well.

The firm took the idea of a gemstone and translated it to the redesign. Accordingly, the lobby will now feature a transparent curtain wall, and the theater space itself will include digital projections that can be changed by the programmers as needed.

Ken Dean, partner and lead of SchenkelShultz’s Sarasota office, said in a recent statement that Booker High School’s theater represents a rich local history in the arts, and one his firm was anxious to expand.

Dean’s SchenkelShultz colleague, Ekta Desai, said that their work will make the historic theater able to meet modern challenges of performance and education.

“Simultaneously, we have elevated the space’s production, technology, acoustics, and function, creating an environment that reflects the school’s longstanding reputation for excellence,” said Desai.

Construction is now underway by general contractor Core Construction, with completion aimed for later this year.

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ORLANDO—Designer SchenkelShultz Architecture has unveiled its design for the Geneva School’s Lower School Academic Building and Gymnasium, which will both be added to the Christian academy’s Casselberry K-12 campus.

SchenkelShultz Architecture, which is based in Orlando, has worked with the school on the building’s design, which will feature an Italian Renaissance motif similar to the campus’s Upper School Building, also designed by the architect. Thus, the two buildings will blend together as the school continues to grow and evolve.

Other work for the architect entails fashioning a new front entrance for the school. In keeping with the Mediterranean aesthetic, the entryway will be a grand plaza to greet faculty, students and visitors, with a large fountain at its center.

The new Lower School Building will be two stories tall, and home to art and music rooms, a media center, administration suite and various other classrooms. The building will offer students and staff the latest technological features, including wireless connectivity. In addition, the Lower School Building will feature flexible learning spaces that are meant to be intimate and welcoming for students as well as family members and other visitors.

“We have collaborated with The Geneva School for over a decade to realize their vision for the Legacy Park Campus,” J. David Torbert, partner at SchenkelShultz, said recently about the project. “The new academic building gives students a 21^st-century modern learning environment and brings students together at one campus location. The new gymnasium will allow the school to expand its capacity to host local events and competitions, as well as provide a single venue for all-student assemblies.”

SchenkelShultz is working on building both the gymnasium and the Lower School building in conjunction with general contractor Clancy & Theys Construction Company, which is headquartered in Raleigh. These two buildings represent the third phase of work at Geneva School for the two firms following an athletic field during Phase 1 and the Upper School Academic Building, completed in 2019, as Phase 2.

“SchenkelShultz has had the tremendous privilege to work with The Geneva School since the school’s earliest beginnings,” Torbert stated. “The most rewarding thing for us has been to witness the success that the school and their innovative and collaborative approach to education have achieved. From their humble beginnings in leased space and then into a renovated ‘big box’ retail building, their vision and dedication to their families, students, and mission is now allowing them to create a new school campus that fully expresses their identity and more fully supports their innovative learning and teaching modalities.”

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ORLANDO—SchenkelShultz Architecture is recently announced the completion of Horizon High School and Lake Buena Vista High School for Orange County Public Schools, the nation’s eighth-largest school district. Both schools will serve as centers for education excellence and provide relief from overcrowding in the Winter Garden and Dr. Phillips areas, respectively, adding 2,700 student stations at each location.

“Our goal in the design of these two campuses was to balance cost efficiency and functionality with a modern 21st century learning environment for students,” said David Torbert, Partner and Education Leader at the firm. “The multi-use academic spaces support small-scale learning communities, multi-modal instruction, and project-based learning with the courtyard providing a place to extend learning, connection, and collaboration beyond the classroom.”

Both schools were designed around a secure, centralized courtyard, with the auditorium, gymnasium, and media center located in the front for convenient after-hours use by students, parents, and the community. The administration building is also located at the front of the campus and provides a secure, single-entry point for students and visitors.

Additional security features include a full security system and cameras throughout the schools, a two-way emergency radio system, a voice evacuation fire alarm system, a permanent generator, protective fenced-lined perimeters, a secure courtyard, and card reader entrance controls.

Horizon High School was constructed by Wharton-Smith, Inc.; Pirtle Construction Company served as the contractor on the Lake Buena Vista High School project.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla.—SchenkelShultz Architecture recently announced the completion of the innovative and sustainable Middle-High School at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School in Gainesville.

The public K-12 school is affiliated with the University of Florida’s College of Education and is a statewide leader in the development of innovative educational programs that create an optimized learning environment for every student.

The new, three-story academic building replaces the existing 60-year-old facility with a student-centered learning environment that is flexible, technology-rich, and provides opportunities for collaboration to occur everywhere. Each learning community includes STEM labs, open collaboration areas, learning studios, distance learning labs, teacher planning/collaboration, and small group break-out spaces.

“Our goal was to design a physical environment that was an embodiment of the school’s mission to ‘design, test and disseminate innovations in education,” said J. David Torbert, Partner, SchenkelShultz Architecture. “We collaborated closely with P.K Yonge’s Leadership Team, educators and students to create a new building that prioritizes active, participatory learning within a safe and secure environment.”  In recognition of its outstanding design, the project was recently awarded 1st Place in the Architectural Showcase presented by the Florida Education Facilities Planners’ Association (FEFPA).

The project was designed and built to achieve LEED® Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).  Parrish McCall Constructors served as the Construction Manager for the project.

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Designed to serve as a true community asset, the new facility will create opportunities for children and students to learn and develop their skills for the future. The youth recreation facility is designed with a variety of spaces, including a health and lifestyles room, youth/teen game room, teen career educational center, technology center, gymnasium/multi-purpose room with stage, art and music labs, art gallery, dance studio, reading areas, and a full demonstration/learning kitchen. The project is being supported through a donation of up to $4 million by Clarence Otis, former CEO of Darden, and his wife, Jacqueline Bradley, a Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida board member for more than 20 years.

The site is located in one of the area’s oldest residential neighborhoods, just west of downtown Orlando, and will be part of a new community hub associated with the adjacent elementary school, an Early Childhood Learning Center and a Wellness Hub. To create a visual connection to the outdoors, the building is designed with open glass throughout, along with balconies and terraces. With construction set to begin in May 2019 and completion slated for April 2020, the facility will be built on land leased from Orange County Public Schools. The facility will also serve as Orange Center Elementary School’s gymnasium. Brasfield & Gorrie, of Winter Park, Fla., will serve as construction manager for the project.

In addition, SchenkelShultz Architecture also designed the new $2.3 million, 12,665-square-foot expansion of the Joe R. Lee Branch Boys & Girls Club in Eatonville, which is scheduled to begin construction this month. Located at 400 Ruffel Street, the new addition will more than double the size of the existing 9,500-square-foot facility designed by the firm. When completed in October 2019, the Eatonville branch improvements will include a dedicated teen center, new technology labs, digital arts lab, dance-aerobics studio and more. The Eatonville branch is named in honor of retired Darden CEO Joe R. Lee. Aagaard-Juergensen LLC, Orlando, serves as construction manager for the Eatonville project, as it did for the original facility which opened in 2011.

The design of both the new West Lakes facility and the expanding Eatonville branch align with the mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida to inspire and enable all young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.

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