SPRINGFIELD, N.J.—New Brunswick, N.J.-based design firm DIGroupArchitecture is undertaking $32.9 million worth of renovations for the Garden State community of Springfield’s public school district. Funding, which was allocated by a recent bond referendum, will go towards upgrading several schools throughout the township.

According to information released by the design firm, the $33 million will be applied to various infrastructure upgrades, renovations and security updates. These include renovating certain classrooms, music rooms and art rooms. Energy-efficient windows are to be installed to lessen potential waste of resources. Furthermore, DIGroupArchitecture’s plans entail upgrades to the schools’ HVAC and sewer systems, as well as installing new bathroom fixtures. Security upgrades will include updating the current video-monitoring system.

The breadth of the improvements around Springfield are now under design review. While no general contractor has yet been chosen for the work, officials at DIGroupArchitecture, the architect of record, estimate that the entirety of the work will be finished sometime in 2026.

Currently, DIG Associate Kelli Glasgow, AIA, is collaborating with Springfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Rachel Goldberg to iron out some of the details of the project, particularly concerning what specifically can be funded with the money raised already by the township. Glasgow’s prior experience entails several education-related projects for DIG.

“We are honored to be working alongside the district to ensure that the school updates support the success, wellness and safety needs of today’s students, as well as students, teachers, staff and guests who will enter the doors, engage and learn in the classrooms, walk the halls and gather across the common spaces well into the future,” Glasgow said.

In a subsequent statement to School Construction News, Glasgow shared that ongoing equipment delivery issues across the entire construction industry will likely be an issue for the work at the Springfield schools as well.

“The most challenging part of the assignment, which will make great strides to improve the overall educational experience for students and staff, will be the scheduling and coordination of the HVAC upgrades, which account for the largest portion of the project,” said Glasgow.

Though based in New Jersey, DIGroupArchitecture also has offices across the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Their work touches upon many sectors, including healthcare, senior living and education buildings. Among their other school construction work in the Garden State are at Phillipsburg High School, Memorial Elementary School, the Jonathan Dayton High School Media Center and Camden High School.

DIGroupArchitecture, a certified Minority-Owned, Disadvantaged and Small Business Enterprise (MBE/DBE/SBE), was founded in 2006 and follows the credo “Architecture for Change.”

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As with any major construction project, to achieve the strongest results and reduce risk, optimization project leaders should develop a plan that covers everything from concept and stakeholder education to design, bidding, construction, and after-project support. An optimization provider should first conduct a thorough feasibility study to determine the requirements, savings, project scope, costs, and return on investment for the project. The following steps are critical to success.

Pursue holistic optimization

Effective optimization should take a whole-system approach (rather than optimizing individual components), thoroughly monitor sensor information and measure energy use, and deliver continuous and automatic feedback to the HVAC system.

For example, an engineering site assessment at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) found that even a new chiller plant with few operational maintenance issues could be made more efficient. Before optimization, the plant was consuming energy at 0.9 kW/ton and operating at just 50 percent output. In the first year of optimization, IBBR’s plant cut energy use by an average of 30 percent.

Design for constraints

Facility operators must be confident that operational requirements will continue to be met when optimization is active. As part of the initial feasibility study, any optimization project should quantify operational restrictions that would constrain optimization — and ensure the product can operate within those restrictions without using more energy than is needed to meet them.

An optimization provider should identify system requirements and develop a plan for addressing them with the lowest possible energy input. The solution could be as simple as adding an occupancy schedule and night set-back set points to an air handler or installing a dedicated AC unit to provide cooling to a specific piece of equipment, allowing the chiller plant to shut down when it’s not needed.

Most facilities have dialed-in operational set points and procedures meant to fulfill worst-case conditioning and ventilation requirements. Often, systems operate at these set points even when they do not need to. Air change per hour (ACH) requirements, for example, don’t need to be fulfilled 24 hours per day in facilities that are not occupied around the clock. A particular piece of equipment that requires cooling may cause a whole chiller plant to run, even when it is the only load in the facility that requires cooling at a given time.

A feasibility study can find other hidden details that sabotage energy efficiency. At a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, Optimum Energy conducted a feasibility analysis, followed by a detailed scoping study, that revealed the ideal solution was to optimize 35 of the 60 air handling units (AHUs). For these AHUs, we determined the retrofit scope needed to optimize each unit. The first priority was to get each AHU up to good working order before implementing optimization software.

Measure and verify

Measurement and verification (M&V) is an essential, yet often neglected, part of optimization. An M&V method helps the optimization product report the effectiveness of optimization versus the organization’s goals. If the organization has a carbon footprint reduction goal, for example, the product should report mass of CO₂ reduced in an easy-to-retrieve format.

Create a road map

The project scoping phase should include developing a robust road map that calculates the projected energy savings, clearly documents how those savings will be achieved, and provides a detailed plan of the project retrofits and tasks required to implement optimization.

When Georgia Tech pursued optimization, for example, it had to ensure that the project would provide enough savings to repay a loan from the state. So in addition to an environmental site assessment, the project team did an investment-grade audit — which took three months and covered four years’ worth of operations. With nearly $1.5 million in anticipated annual energy cost savings, the payoff is assured.

Many project managers go the traditional route of requesting multiple bids, but the road map should be developed in partnership with the contractors who will do the work. Since optimization is not yet a commoditized product, the bid winner typically is the one who provides the least optimization at the lowest price, which results in missed savings.

 Ensure quality control

In retrofit jobs, optimization may involve multiple vendors and groups. Instruments that are used as control points for optimization, or for calculating the energy input or output of the system, must be installed in the correct location, with correct orientation, and be properly calibrated.

Someone must coordinate the many activities and ensure that each part of the optimization project is installed correctly. The key is an engaged project sponsor or owner’s representative.

Plan for training and handoff

Near the end of the project, a clear handoff and training for facility personnel is essential to ensure the optimization system is used to its fullest. Proper training will help operators understand how the system is meant to work, what to expect the system to do, and what to do in the event of a problem.

Once the project is completed, facility personnel must monitor and report on the optimization. “If you’re not measuring it, you’re not optimizing it,” is a useful mantra. Periodic reviews of optimization will prevent performance drift and ensure that the project achieves the projected savings.

Optimization starts before any construction is done or software is installed and continues with measuring progress once the project is complete. Following the simple formula of comprehensive scoping plus planning will result in energy and cost savings at every site, every time.

Fred Woo, PE, is manager, engineering at Optimum Energy, where he manages a team of engineers with extensive experience in optimizing HVAC systems for sensitive environments.

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With a new food service provider serving freshly made breakfast and lunch to students, teachers and staff, a coffee and smoothie bar will also be open throughout the day, according to a report from the Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune. In addition to the new food service upgrades, which will be funded by the provider, Quest Food Management Services, the district will spend nearly $1.3 million on security upgrades, mechanical systems and other parts of the school before the 2018-2019 term. The largest amount is reportedly being spent on the HVAC system upgrade. When the school was built and expanded, there were three separate systems throughout the campus; when the work is done, there will be just one.

Ken Williams, an assistant principal at Deerfield, said in the report that when Quest takes over the cafeteria duties, the kitchen will be reworked to allow for the preparation of daily fresh options. He said Quest Food Management will make and fund those improvements.

Besides the kitchen renovations, improvements to the internal communications system, the HVAC system and other capital projects will be made, according to John Fuhrer, the facilities coordinator for the school district.

Renovations to the mechanical systems will reportedly cost $1 million while the improvements to the public address system will be $250,000. An additional $20,000 will go towards putting softball field bleachers, and $20,000 will fund a robotics room and makers space. Deerfield High’s public address system is being upgraded as well to ensure everyone in the main building can hear announcements as soon as they are made, with new speakers being installed so no one is more than 10-feet apart from one.

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The energy and operations savings will be achieved by implementing energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades to the Todd Grant Elementary School, McIntosh County Academy, McIntosh County Middle School, and the McIntosh County Board of Education and Maintenance Offices — all located in Darien. ABM has been monitoring energy use, inspecting facility equipment of the schools and and talking to key school staff to identify the school system’s major infrastructure challenges, seeking opportunities to cut costs through energy-efficiency improvements. Projected savings for the first year alone are expected to be more than $263,000.

Some planned improvements already in the works include upgrading all HVAC units at McIntosh County Academy as well as units at other facilities to high-efficiency, state-of-the-art HVAC units. All district HVAC units will be controlled by advanced, web-based direct digital control (DDC) systems to maximize energy and operational efficiency. LED lighting will also be installed at all of the facilities, while irrigation wells will be installed at all three schools in order to provide a more cost-efficient means of irrigating the campus and athletic fields.

Amongst other improvements, the Todd Grant Elementary School campus will receive two complete, age-appropriate playgrounds and a covered outdoor classroom area as well as the renovation and expansion of three buildings on campus to serve as the administrative complex for the school district. All restrooms at the McIntosh County Middle School will be renovated, and aging roofs of two buildings will be replaced. The McIntosh County Academy will have its building envelope sealed from outside air as well as gain new refrigerator management, in addition to other improvements.

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JM Electrical began work on the schools in June 2016, starting with the installation of power and controls for new HVAC equipment (provided by Trane) for Oakmont High Regional School and Overlook Middle School, according to a statement by the firm. The schools will now operate in a more energy efficient manner and, in turn, experience minimized energy costs. The company’s electricians also worked to ensure the project was completed on time and on budget.

“We were pleased to work with the Ashburnham Westminster school system in upgrading [its] HVAC controls,” said John Guarracino, project manager at JM Electrical, in a statement. “We are always happy to provide school systems with the tools they need to operate more efficiently and create a more comfortable learning environment for both the students and teachers.”

With no capital outlay required from the district, the project team delivered more than $4 million in much-needed facility upgrades, including a new roof, HVAC equipment, a biomass boiler fueled by wood pellets and a state of the art building automation system, according to a statement by Chris Marshall, general manager of energy services at New England Trane.

In addition, Trane has guaranteed energy savings exceeding $5 million over the 20-year term enabled by Massachusetts General Law CH25a, 11i, which focuses on energy management services contracts and will be used to pay for the project.

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Modine Manufacturing Company

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Ascension

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In need of a new facility — one that would meet updated technology needs — the school was chosen to be rebuilt on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” featuring furnishing from The HON Company, an Iowa-based office furniture designer and manufacturer.
 

Part of the reason the company was selected was it was able to provide the full solution, beyond the classroom, according to said John Bann, product business manager of education at The Hon Company.

Based on research gathered from educators, school administrators and others involved in the education process, the company created mobile teacher stations, student desks, versatile modular storage, a wall rail system, white boards and other accessories.

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