Construction on New Friendship Public Charter School Expected to Begin in Fall

Construction of a new middle school will begin this summer at Friendship Public Charter School in Ward 8, a community in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington D.C. The charter middle school will be new ground-up construction, span approximately 35,000 square feet, and stand three stories tall. Additional construction work at Friendship includes a new gym, a parking area, and an elementary school playground that is anticipated to be completed in time for the 2020/2021 academic year.

Friendship School

For this project at Friendship, Consigli Construction Co., Inc. has joint-ventured with Keystone Plus Construction Corporation. Carlos Perdomo, chief executive officer and president of Keystone, has had a long-standing relationship with Consigli’s D.C. Director of Operations, Eric Tievy. Their relationship helped establish a strategic partnership between Consigli and Keystone in the D.C. market as a commitment to engage with the local community on both the subcontractor level as well as the local workforce level to build the school. Consigli and Keystone will also partner with Michael Marshall Design on the school’s design.

“This exciting, transformative project will address a significant community need to improve the learning conditions for young students in the Ward 8 community,” said Consigli’s D.C. Director of Operations Eric Tievy. “The new Friendship Public Charter middle school will be the result of bridging community input with local execution, and we are looking forward to working with our D.C. partners to build facilities for students to learn and thrive for years to come.”

"As a local, small business enterprise based in Ward 8, we could not be more excited and are looking forward to working on this important academic project in our own neighborhood,” said Carlos Perdomo, chief executive officer and president of Keystone Plus. “Friendship Public Charter is an important initiative that we’re grateful to be a part of.”

Consigli will also have two alumni of Friendship Public Charter School working as interns on the project. One is Latrice Black, an alumna of Friendship and a recent winner of ACE Mentor Program of D.C.’s Women In Construction Alumni Scholarship, who joined Consigli in the summer of 2018. The other is Fabian Pineda, a 2019 graduate of Friendship who also joined Consigli through the ACE Mentor Program of D.C.

Featured

  • University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Launches New Emergency Communications System

    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) recently deployed a new emergency notification and incident management system for its campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with 911Cellular to launch Safe@UTC, a smartphone app allowing university officials to communicate and respond during emergency situations.

  • Spaces4Learning Trends & Predictions for Educational Facilities in 2026: Part II

    As education leaders look toward 2026, the design of K–12 and higher education facilities is being reshaped by powerful, converging forces. Survey respondents point to the rapid growth of Career and Technical Education, deeper alignment with workforce and industry needs, and the accelerating influence of AI and emerging technologies.

  • University of Arizona Approves New Residence Hall

    The Arizona Board of Regents recently approved plans for a new residence hall at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., according to a news release. The new facility is scheduled to open in fall 2028 and have the capacity for more than 1,200 students, enforcing a new university expectation that all first-year students live on campus.

  • How a Portable Sink Helped an Art Classroom Run More Smoothly

    Classroom design decisions can have outsized effects on instructional time and safety at schools juggling mismatched infrastructure, strict budgets, and crowded schedules — particularly in the arts. Between spilled paint and dirty brushes, art classes run smoother with a sink in the studio. But many schools don’t have a sink in every art classroom.