Schematic Design – Complete

Tags

Architecture, Big Sandy, Design, P-12, School

The first phase of the design process, Schematic Design, is now complete.  Over the month of the March, the design team, Nunn Construction and the members of the Big Sandy DAG and School Board worked together to complete to reconcile the goals of the project within the limits that have been defined for it, namely the size of the building and the cost of construction.

So key decisions made that allowed the square footage of the school to be reduced to allowed program of 84,300 square feet included reducing the corridors in the classroom wings from 8′-6″ to 8′-0′, reducing the main north south corridor width from 14′-0″ to 10′-0″, reducing the run offs at the ends of the main and auxiliary gymnasiums from 10′-0″ to 8′-0″ and designing the locker rooms to accommodate a specific locker count versus meeting an assigned square footage.  In total, these decisions, along with finding a few other small efficiencies reduced the size of the building by over 3,000 square feet.

Big Sandy - New P-12 School: Overall Floor Plan

Key cost reduction decisions made by the DAG and the School Board included limiting the amount of basement under the school.  Instead of having a basement and crawlspace under the entire school, basement space will be provided under the locker rooms and under the high school wing.  The remainder of the school will be built as a structural floor slab cast to prevent movement due to expansive soils, but will not have crawlspace access.   Another significant cost savings decision was to establish that the sloped roofs would have asphalt shingles as a base bid and a metal roof would be bid as an alternate.  Over a period of a few weeks, the team was able to make good long term decisions and at the same time, reduced the estimated cost of construction by almost $2,000,000.

Big Sandy - New P-12: Elementary School Wing

Big Sandy - New P-12: Junior High School Wing

Big Sandy - New P-12: Senior High School Wing

Big Sandy - New P-12: Athletic and CTE Wing

Public Meeting #1

A meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, January 23rd in the school cafeteria.  The goal of the meeting was to share the progress on the design of the new school, answer questions and to listen to everyone’s initial thoughts and ideas.

Approximately 50 people were in attendance to listen to a brief presentation by Steve Wilson, the superintendent of schools for Big Sandy and Lyn Eller and Matt Porta from SLATERPAULL Architects.

Snapshot of those in attendance for the public meeting.

The progress of the building design was presented.  Key elements of the design include three separate academic wings, one each for the elementary grades, junior high and senior high, with a separate wing housing the athletics, wood shop, and cafeteria.  The four wings are connected with a main north / south corridor.  A fundamental tenet of the design can be defined as a ‘high performance design.’  This term is used to define designs that create learning spaces that maximize the performance of the students and teachers by maximizing the use of daylighting in the classrooms, good acoustical isolation between teaching spaces and good indoor air quality.  The academic wings are oriented primarily along an east/west axis, which provides the opportunity to maximize the use of natural daylight to light the classrooms during the school day.

Conceptual Design:

Big Sandy Conceptual Design

In addition to the colored floor plan above, 3 other variations of the floor plan were investigated and presented to the DAG earlier in the evening.  These options were simply labeled Option A-C.

Option A:

Plan Option A

Option B:

Plan Option B

Option C:

Plan Option C

The next step in the process is the selection of a CM/GC, (Construction Manager /  General Contractor) to join the team.  The interviews of four companies is scheduled for the evening of January 31.

The next public meeting is scheduled for the evening of Monday, February 20th.  See you there.

Conceptual Design Development – DAG Meeting #2

On January 16th, the DAG met for a second time.  The meeting was conducted in the School District’s conference room.  The purpose of this meeting was to review the progress of the design of two distinct conceptual designs.

Conceptual Design Idea A is the development of what was presented as Idea 1 at the January 9th DAG meeting.  This concept support two different floor options.

Idea A.1:

Conceptual Design A.1

Attributes of Conceptual Design A.1 include an east facing entry and a stage configuration that only opened into the cafeteria.

Idea A.2:

Conceptual Design A.2

Attributes of Conceptual Design A.2 include a south facing entry and a stage configuration that opened into both the auxiliary gymnasium and the cafeteria.

Conceptual Design Idea B is the development of a new idea that came about from discussions at the January 9th DAG meeting.  This concept has three academic wings, one for elementary, junior high, and senior high.  This concept also supports two different floor plan options.

Idea B.1:

Conceptual Design B.1

Attributes of Conceptual Design B.1 include an east facing entry into a central administration zone and a stage configuration that only opened into the cafeteria.

Idea B.2:

Conceptual Design B.2

Attributes of Conceptual Design B.2 include an east facing entry into a vestibule between a school administration zone and the library and a stage configuration that opened into both the auxiliary gymnasium and the cafeteria.

The DAG favored the direction indicated with Conceptual Design B.  Specifically, having the main entry facing east and located between the school administration and the library was good as well as locating the parking east of the building allows for a closer relationship between the parking and the main and after hours entries.

We hope you are enjoying the blog and seeing how things are progressing.  We are very early in the process, but are moving forward at a pretty quick pace, so now is a great time for feedback.  If you with to share, please comment on any of these posts.

Initial Design Ideas – DAG Meeting #1

Following the tours on Janyary 9th, the first Design Advisory Group meeting was held in the conference room at Sage Canyon Elementary.  The purpose of this meeting was to discuss what we had seen on the tours and to start the design conversation for the new school.

The SLATERPAULL Architects design team of Adele Willson, Lyn Eller and Matt Porta presented three initial design ideas to the DAG to get their feedback and to start the process of moving the design forward.

Idea #1:

Initial Design Idea #1

Attributes of Idea 1.
A:  All teaching spaces on one level (upper level)
B:  May gymnasium and lockers are on lower level.
C:  Main entry faces east within a large courtyard.
D:  Good visual connection of classroom wings from two single centralized positions.

Questions and Comments from the DAG of Idea 1.
A:  How can pre-school drop off work?
B:  After hours entry is adjacent to the service drive, consider flipping the service access to the west side of the building.

Idea #2:

Initial Design Idea #2

Attributes of Idea 2.
A:  All teaching spaces on one level (upper level)
B:  Main gymnasium, auxiliary gymnasium, locker rooms, wrestling room on lower level.
C:  Main entry faces east.
D:  Long main corridor that connects classroom pods and all other spaces.

Questions and Comments from the DAG of Idea 2.
A:  Prefer classroom relationships that allow better visual supervision as opposed to the classroom pod relationship.
B:  Prefer play areas exposed to the south and protected from northern winds.
C:  Like keeping the parking lot close to the main entry, minimizing the pedestrian path distance from the main entry doors and the parking lot.

Idea #3

Initial Design Idea #3

Attributes of Idea 3.
A:  Two story school with two academic wings stacked on top of each other.
B:  South facing entry
C:  Main entry supervision of parking lot

Questions and Comments from the DAG of Idea 3.

A.  Maximizes the use of an elevator, which would be required in any solution that has a top loading main gymnasium.

B:  Don’t like the deep court yards, especially when they are required for building entry and exit.
C:  OK with a south facing entry if the east façade is articulated to look and feel like a school.
D:  Would prefer to have the school all on one level, however a top loading gymnasium is appealing.

The next DAG meeting is in one week.  Please come back to the site to see how the design is developing.

School tours.

On January 9th, SLATERPAULL led the Big Sandy School District Design Advisory Group (DAG) on tours through four recently completed school projects.  Touring schools is always a great way to help establish a common language, perspectives and expectations for the entire team.

The tours began at the Vista Peak P-8 Exploratory School in Aurora.

Vista Peak P-8 Exploratory in Aurora.

Attributes of the design of this school that many members of the Big Sandy DAG liked included the use of tile on the corridor walls that create a durable and cleanable surface, the use of materials to allow the school to serve as a teaching tool, utilizing the crawlspace/basement for mechanical equipment, and providing a canopy cover at the service and kitchen entry.

The wainscot of tile on the corridor walls create a durable and cleanable wall surface.

Use of materials to allow the school to be a teaching tool.

Utilizing the crawlspace / basement for mechanical equipment.

Overhead canopy above the loading dock.

The second school toured was the Vista Peak 9-12 Preparatory School.  This school and the P-8 share a site and are part of an overall campus design.

Vista Peak 9-12 Preparatory School

Positive design elements of this High School identified by the DAG included the size and natural daylight of the main gymnasium, the athletic lockers being set on a concrete bench, and the use of light fixtures that have open baffles that won’t collect debris.

The main gymnasium is similar in size to the Big Sandy main gymnasium.

Lockers located on top of attached concrete benches.

Light fixture with open baffles that won't collect debris.

The third school toured was the Aurora Hills Middle School replacement school.  Today was actually the first day for students in their new school.

Aurora Hills Middle School, a replacement school in the Aurora Public School District.

Design features of this school the DAG liked or may be part of future design conversations included the integration of the mechanical system under the base cabinets, the use of operable partitions between classrooms, a stage that opens into the cafeteria and the use of carpet base at the bottom of the wall.

Displacement ventilation diffusers located under the base cabinets.

An operable partition between two classrooms provides flexibility.

The stage opens into the cafeteria for performances.

Use of carpet base at the bottom of the wall.

The final tour was of Sage Canyon Elementary School in Castle Rock.

Sage Canyon Elementary School, a Douglas County School in Castle Rock.

Design features of this school that appealed to the DAG included the relationship of the school administration to the main entry and the location of the security monitor, the secure pre-school playground accessed directly from the classroom, the natural day light in the cafeteria, and the mechanical basement that had direct grade level access.

The security monitor is easily visible from the front desk.

The pre-school playground is directly accessed from the classroom.

The use of natural daylight allows the cafeteria to be in use without the need for artificial lighting.

The mechanical basement takes advantage of site grades and has direct access at grade to the exterior.

The tours concluded with a DAG meeting that took place in the conference room at Sage Canyon.  The next post will tell more about our meeting.

Design Kickoff Meeting for the New P-12 School Facility

We would like to begin by first saying that SLATERPAULL Architects is very honored to be selected as your architect for your new school. We look forward to working with everyone in your community to help design and build the best rural school in Colorado.

The intent of this website is to share with the Big Sandy community the progress of the design of the new school. Please take a look and share your thoughts.

The design process was kicked off with a meeting that took place on December 21st. It was an opportunity for SLATERPAULL Architects team to meet the Big Sandy School District community and vice-versa. In addition to introductions, the purpose of the meeting was to review and confirm the goals of the project, establish likes and dislikes of building aesthetics and discuss issues and opportunities the project site offers.

Project Goals:

1. Small student to teacher ratios.
2. Small group learning spaces
3. Minimize stairs and changes in floor levels
4. Technology for collaboration
5. Secure, but comfortable feeling
6. Tornado safety
7. Efficient circulation between classrooms
8. Importance of Career and Technical Education
9. Community access
10. Sustainable, high performance design
11. Separate grade level learning communities

The graphic below shows the vote of how people felt about different exterior building materials and aesthetics. Green = good. Yellow = OK. Red = No way.

Voting on exterior materials and aesthetics

The meeting concluded by dividing into two groups and spending some time as an entire team exploring how a new school may fit on the new site.

Adele Willson, principal at SLATERPAULL, exploring site design options