Expansion and Renovation

This project included both renovations and additions to the high school. The additions included a larger kitchen, a new classroom wing with science labs, art rooms, general classrooms, music areas, an auditorium and field house. All new air handling units had energy recovery incorporated into the design. IMEG designed a new high efficiency 1250-ton water-cooled chiller plant accompanied by a 230-ton air cooled chiller for summer month cooling and the addition fo four condensing boilers with a capacity of 290 BHP to an existing flexible water tube boiler plant. We also provided high efficiency lighting controls including daylighting.

The largest challenge was the phasing of the project as the building remained open during construction and required extensive coordination with the architect and construction manager. Other challenges included providing the most efficient systems with a very tight budget.

Structural work for Phase 1 included some tall spaces with large openings that were a challenge to design in masonry construction. In addition, we were touching all sides of the existing building. This included needing to reinforce existing roof construction due to snow drift loads and also replacing demolished bearing walls with steel frames. Much of that work was only found during demolition in June and needed to be turned around quickly for the opening of school in August.

Phase 2 included a fly tower theater with a grid iron platform and catwalk system. The challenge in this space was designing a tall open space with precast cladding. The precast walls could not be shipped as one piece so there were large horizontal girts to support the lateral loads.