This 82,000 square foot elementary school was designed to house pre-school through 5^th grade students for a growing school district. The school features 30 classrooms, a state-of-the-art media center, gymnasium, and administration spaces. 

The architect’s design concept of water washing up on a sandy shore was a nod to a river and the many lakes that form the western boundary of the school district.  Additionally, the school district wanted a design that would give the new elementary a strong identity given it is adjacent to two other school district buildings.  The project incorporated the use of insulated, load-bearing precast walls at both the interior and exterior of the building.

Early in the design process, the architect targeted precast for this project because of its speed of construction and its flexibility of exterior finishes.  The architect’s prior experience using precast also played a factor in making an early determination to use precast.  The project was delivered using the construction manager at-risk delivery method which allowed the precaster to be brought on early in the design process to work with the design team.  This early involvement ensured the panel design and layout maximized efficiencies and reduced costs related to precast fabrication, helping keep the project on budget.

Architect:

Engineer:

PCI-Certified Erector:

Precast Concrete Specialty Engineer:

General Contractor:

Precaster:

Key Project Attributes

• The school’s exterior precast panels incorporated the use of thin brick with an acid etched buff precast and a light grey panel with a retarder finish.  The interior panels are an acid etch buff with a repeating retarder linear pattern on each panel.
• The precaster and formliner manufacturer working with the architect successfully developed a custom formliner to create a panel to support the architect’s unique vanishing brick design.  
• At the completion of conceptual design, the precaster was brought on board which is a bit unique given the construction manager had yet to be engaged on the project.  

Project/Precast Scope

Total Project Cost: $17.3 million

• Total Square Footage: 82,000 SF
• Cost of the Precast Concrete: $1,554,494.00
• Project Start: February 2018
• Precast Erection Start: July 2018
• Precast Erection Completion: November 2018
• Project Completion: August 2019  
• The project included 215 pieces of insulated sandwich panels that totaled 43,500 square feet. 
• The typical panel varied, but was typically 12 feet wide and varying in height from 13’-0” feet to 34’-0”.