Connecticut High School Completes Addition and Renovation Project

PlattO&G Industries recently completed the four-year addition and renovation project at Meriden’s Orville H. Platt High School.

The Orville H. Platt High School addition and renovate-as-new project kicked off in October of 2013 with the four-year, four-phase project turned over to school officials in the fall of 2017. Although the project started three months later than planned, construction was completed a full month ahead of schedule.

The project included an 87,812 square-foot renovation of the existing building, coupled with a 176,188 square-foot addition that included a new freshman academy, vocational technology facility, kitchen, and cafeteria wing. The auditorium, pool, athletic spaces and boiler room were renovated to meet Connecticut high performance building regulations.

The project has received multiple accolades and was recently awarded the 2018 Associated Construction General Contractors of Connecticut (AGC-CT) Build CT Award in the Large Renovation category and a 2017 Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) Award for Projects over $25 million. Platt High School Project Superintendent Steve Baranello was named as the 2017 Associated Construction General Contractors of Connecticut (AGC-CT) Construction Supervisor of the Year.

O&G Industries of Torrington, Conn. was the construction manager for the project. 

Ninety students participated in Platt Builds, a nine-month long experiential learning program presented by O&G Industries in partnership with the Platt High School Career Center. As a part of the program, Platt high school students earned credits while learning hands-on about careers in construction. Students received a behind the scenes look into the construction of their school, engaging in interactive lectures from the project management team, design team and trade contractors as the project moved through various phases of construction to completion.

The Platt Builds program has been recognized with the Connecticut Construction Industries Association (CCIA) Community Service Award in 2014, the Midstate Chamber of Commerce Recognition for Business & Education Excellence in 2015 and the Midstate Chamber of Commerce Innovation in Education Award in 2016.

Featured

  • University of Kansas Breaks Ground on Entrepreneurship Hub

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new KU Entrepreneurship Hub, according to university news. The Hub is part of the university’s School of Business and will include spaces for experiential learning and programming.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.

  • abstract illustration of school gym

    How the Gymnasium Can Serve as a Model for Learning Space Design

    Multipurpose gyms work because flexibility was built into the brief from the start, not retrofitted later. The same logic applies to academic spaces.