Project Overview
To give students a more inviting and comfortable place to learn, a state-of-the-art 310,000 ft2 (28,200 m2) high school facility was built. The new school is able to to house a minimum of 1,600 students with support space for an additional 200. It also includes a gym with seating for 1,800 and a new performing arts center with stadium seating for 500.
Precast concrete insulated wall panels were chosen early on as a cost-effective, maintenance-free exterior wall system. The precast concrete lends itself to custom color, surface textures and finishing, that when combined, resulted in a rich and varied facade treatment. The durability of the concrete will provide the building with the longevity necessary when building with tax payer dollars.
Precast Solution
One of the bigger challenges on this project was to achieve a building envelope that met the city design standards, which required many material and surface planes, as well as the school district’s requirements for durability and economy.
Jerry Walters, AIA LEED AP, architect for Dull Olsen Weekes Architects, worked with precast concrete to create a custom precast concrete solution. It featured a stone liner modeled after the “Sandy style” of architecture at the base, and a ship lap wood grain liner on the upper part, creating the appearance of different materials. The stone liner portion of the panels has a sandblast finish and the ship lap was left as cast to expose the wood grain finish. |