New Construction
Officials from the Del Mar Union School District near San Diego, Calif., gathered at the end of June to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new elementary school. The June 24 event marked the first in-person event for district board and staff since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
Campus Expansion
Melissa High School in Melissa, Texas, recently completed a 65,000-square-foot expansion in conjunction with the Perkins&Will Dallas studio. The new space includes a new practice gymnasium, an extension of the student union, a new performance theater, and an addition to the fine arts program.
New Construction
Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, held a groundbreaking ceremony last week for a new School of the Built Environment facility. Once complete, the building will play home to the construction management and architecture and environmental design programs.
New Construction
Officials at Diné College’s Shiprock south campus in Shiprock, N.M., celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony this week for a new, $7.4 million Math and Science Building.
Campus Renovations
Merced College in Merced, Calif., was recently awarded with a $3-million construction and renovation grant by the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA). The college has announced that it will use this grant, in combination with the remaining 2002 Measure H Bond funds, to renovate the Vocational Building near the heart of campus.
Building Addition
During its quarterly meeting last week, the Kent State University Board of Trustees approved an addition to the university’s Aeronautics and Engineering Building. The College of Aeronautics and Engineering opened in spring 2015, and since then, enrollment has grown enough to require additional space for faculty research and student classes and labs.
New Construction
Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., announced this week that it has named its new Integrated Science and Engineering facility: The John and Joan Bollier Family Center for Integrated Science and Engineering is scheduled to open this fall.
New Construction
School and public officials celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony this week on a new academic building for Clinton High School in Clinton, Iowa. The groundbreaking marks the start of a campus overhaul that will occur in phases, and the full scope of the $66.8-million project is scheduled to be complete by fall 2025.
Campus Renovations
The Nederland Independent School District (NISD) in Nederland, Texas, is preparing for renovations of all four of its elementary school campuses. District officials are expecting to receive design plans and a budget by August 2021, leading to an anticipated start date (for two of the schools) of October 2021. The primary goal is to keep the work within the $49.1 million budget that voters have already approved.
Campus Sustainability
The town of Mansfield, Conn., broke ground last week on the state’s first net-zero elementary school. Local politicians, town administrators, parents and students attended the ceremony on Thursday, June 25. The new school, which has yet to be named, will replace the town’s three existing elementary schools.
New Construction
Prince George’s County in Maryland is set to break ground on six new schools during the week of June 28 to July 2. The goal of the multi-school construction initiative is to address aging infrastructure, rising enrollment figures and a deficit of space for middle-school students in particular.
Leadership
Flooring solutions provider Shaw Industries Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., has tapped Shannon Cochran to be the new brand leader of Patcraft.
Campus Technology
New programs prepare students for real-world careers and college pursuits, with LG displays used for teaching, collaboration, highlighting student works and school-wide digital signage
Campus Technology
Walk into the Makerspace at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and you will see Computer Numerical Control machinery; waterjet cutters; high-tech 3D printers for metal and plastic; and whiteboards full of ideas, to-do lists, and calculations. While the spacious downstairs is filled with machinery for students to bring theory into practice, the brand new, multi-purpose classroom upstairs is where much of the teaching and learning will prime students for success.
Awards
Spaces4Learning has announced the winners of its 2021 New Product Awards. The New Product Award program honors the outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered to be particularly noteworthy in their ability to enhance the learning environment.
New Construction
Voith & Mactavish Architects, LLP (VMA) recently broke ground on a new building for the College of Business at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. The 74,000-square-foot structure is slated to open in fall 2022 and contain 16 experiential learning spaces for the Rauch School of Business.
New Construction
Architecture firm SRG Partnership recently announced that it has designed a Net Zero energy building for the Cascades Campus of Oregon State University in Bend, Ore. Edward J. Ray Hall will serve as a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) learning center featuring both interior and exterior active learning spaces.
Campus Amenities
Viscor, a brand of Leviton Lighting, has announced that it is launching the Visioneering LRTH-DFX luminaire lighting unit featuring 365DisInFx UVA technology.
Campus Funds
Available until September 2024, money from ESSER and HEERF is intended to facilitate the safe and healthy return to in-person instruction, ensuring that schools across the nation can meet the needs of their staff and students from an education, safety, security, and wellness perspective. However, there are many questions about how the funds are distributed and how to make the most of every dollar received.
Campus Renovations
Hampton High School, located near Pittsburgh, Pa., will see a major redesign of its parking lots and surrounding access roads later this year. The goal of the construction project is to improve and streamline the flow of traffic for the safety of students, faculty, and the surrounding community. The total cost of the project is estimated at $17.4 million.
Campus Modernization
The Watchung Hills Regional High School District in Warren, N.J., recently partnered with Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc., to renovate the Watchung Hills Regional High School Media Center into a top-of-the-line learning commons area.
Campus Sustainability
Energy and sustainability solutions company Schneider Electric announced this week that it is partnering with Gulf Shores City Schools in Gulf Shores, Ala., on a system-wide modernization project. The project’s goals are to boost district sustainability and energy efficiency, increase student engagement, and boost opportunities for STEM education.
Campus Facilities
Ivy Tech Community College Indianapolis in Indiana has officially celebrated the grand opening of the Ivy Tech Automotive Technology Center. The $14-million, 59,000-square-foot facility opened as part of a series of developments in the city’s International Marketplace District.
New Construction
Regents at the University of California have approved the construction of an $84-million Education Building II for the School of Medicine at UC Riverside. Hensel Phelps + CO Architects have been selected as the project’s design-build partner. Work on the project will begin shortly, and the team is scheduled to break ground early this summer.
Campus Design
ASI Group, a manufacturer of restroom accessories, toilet partitions, visual display products and lockers, has announced the launch of its BIM Content Library for use by construction, architecture and design professionals. The library will allow these professionals access to a wide variety of practical design tools.
Campus Renovations
Contracting firm Barton Malow Builders announced this week that it is partnering with Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Fla., as the construction manager on a large-scale capital improvement project.
Construction Costs
The St. Clair R-XIII School District in St. Clair, Mo., announced last week that it will delay several planned construction projects due to a spike in the cost of materials. The school board voted on Thursday, June 10, to pause the wheels of construction on a bus bay, a new auditorium, and a pickup and drop-off loop.
Modernization
Dubois Elementary School, part of Springfield School District 186 in Springfield, Ill., will see a series of renovations start this summer meant to modernize the campus while paying respects to its 125-year history. The school, which was built in 1897, will get additional classroom space, smaller spaces intended for group work, and its first elevator.
The 2021 hurricane season is upon us. As we continue to see year-in and year-out the higher frequency and increased intensity of hurricanes, experts agree that we must continue to strive for greater preparedness for our communities.
A recent study conducted by the University of Oregon evaluated sunlight's impact on dust and germs in an indoor space. According to the research, published in the journal Microbiome, rooms exposed to daylight have fewer germs and half the viable bacteria compared with dark rooms.
The Tustin Legacy Magnet School, which sits right between the two iconic U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Air Station (M.C.A.S.) North and South blimp hangars, acknowledges and celebrates its historic neighbors with outstanding design features.
New Construction
At the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla., this week, university administrators and students broke ground on the construction of a new student wellness center. The new center will measure in at three stories and 47,000 square feet, four times as large as the existing Student Health Services building.
Campus Sustainability
On the campus of Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia, construction of the Advanced Technical Training Center is scheduled for completion in spring 2023. The center will be the first higher education facility in the state—and one of just a few community college buildings across the U.S.—to achieve net zero energy.
Campus Sustainability
The University of Arkansas is about to embark on a new round of energy-saving upgrades for its campus. The improvements will include the addition of LED lighting; fault detection diagnostics; upgrades to HVAC; and examination of building envelope systems and other retro-commissioning work. In total, the latest project will encompass some six million square feet of facilities.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/08/21
Campus Sustainability
The Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) in Long Beach, Calif., has announced that it will add solar canopies in 21 schools in an effort to meet sustainability goals. The solar canopy systems will be owned and operated by Standard Solar, Inc., a nationally recognized community solar assets solutions company.
Campus Renovation
The Board of School Directors for the Avon Grove School District in West Grove, Pa., recently approved contracts for a renovation project to convert a high school building into a middle school.
Campus Technology
Facility management application solutions provider MasterLibrary recently added a new product to its collection of K–12 solutions. ML Drawings, an interactive floor plan tool, lets users add building assets represented by digital icon stamps to digital floor plans of educational facilities.
Indoor Air Quality
The Indiana State School Bus Committee has approved the installation of ultraviolet light air purification systems on school buses statewide. The decision became final after the success of a trial program run in partnership with indoor air quality solutions provider Lumin-Air.
Campus Amenities
Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Ky., has partnered with JCA Media to select LynTec, an electrical power control solutions manufacturer for professional audio, video and lighting (AVL) systems, to supply products for the university’s broadcast studios. Integration firm JCA Media has already installed LynTec’s lighting control panels in other buildings around campus.
Campus Amenities
Global technology company Pitney Bowes Inc. recently expanded its lockers portfolio with the debut of ParcelPoint Smart Lockers. The smart lockers offer a secure, contactless package delivery system ideal for high-volume environments like offices, government agencies and college campuses.