Worthington Hooker School
New Haven, CT
A Christian Science Church building was saved, renovated and integrated into a new third grade through eighth grade school. The church portion of the school was converted for use as the school’s auditorium and cafeteria while an academic wing and gymnasium was constructed on each side the existing structure and connected to it. The overall building size is approximately 54,000 square feet with an estimated overall construction budget of 20 million dollars.
The HVAC system has no exterior components (i.e. condensing units and/or cooling towers), and brings conditioned fresh air directly into the classrooms through an energy recovery ventilator. The building was designed to obtain an Energy Star rating and is part of the New Haven Board of Education’s High Performance Schools program.
The design team persevered through several years of delays due to land use legal issues and several value-engineering sessions. The building was just recently dedicated to a very enthusiastic community.
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Suffield Academy Dormitory
Suffield, CT
This project involved the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems design for a new 18,000 square foot Dormitory building at Suffield Academy with the Campus Health Center Located on the ground floor and four faculty apartments. The different occupancies have varying requirements causing the need for different mechanical systems for each.
The wood construction with limited ceiling and shaft space made coordination and tight space planning essential. The different systems caused the space planning and coordination even more challenging.
The Health Center has ten private rooms along with examination rooms offices and a nurses station. Each private room is separately zoned controlled by a direct digital control system that is tied into a campus wide control system.
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Additions to Peck Place and Racebrook Schools
Orange, CT
Orange Public Schools undertook two school addition projects. Both were approximately 5,000 square feet. One addition was at the Peck Place School and the other at Racebrook School.
The projects received funding from the State of Connecticut Department of Education and went through the Bureau of School Facilities (BSF) review and approval process.
These additions consisted mainly of classroom space. The Board of Education requested that, to the furthest extent possible, the additions be integrated into the existing buildings’ mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
Racebrook school was not fully sprinklered. In order to meet the BSF requirements the additions had to include fire protection and sprinkler systems. Because of the expansion an additional system was required. A new service was brought into the building that had to be large enough to feed the rest of the school at a future date.
The construction of these additions did not in any way disrupt the operation of the schools.
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Roberto Clemente School
New Haven, CT
This project involves the construction of an 80,000 sq. ft. K-8 school for the City of New Haven Public Schools.
The Mechanical Systems for the building include a four-pipe hydronic distribution system with fan coil units fed hot water & chilled water from the hydronic system and fresh air from a heat recovery make-up air unit serve the classrooms. The hydronic system is served by a state of the art Central Plant that contains an electric and thermal power generating Fuel Cell. Occupancy sensors control the classroom lighting and fan coil units. Overall the budget for this project was approximately 25 million dollars.
Through a structured process of working with the construction manager, program manager and cost estimators the design team, through submission review and value engineering was able to keep this expansive complicated project within budget. The school opened successfully on it’s originally planned opening date.
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Choate Senior Day Student Lounge
Wallingford, CT
One of the most prestigious private high schools, Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT has day and boarding students. Even though the day students do not sleep on campus they are there from dawn to dusk, eating most of their meals there. They need a place to base themselves and study between classes and extracurricular activities. The Day Student Lounge fulfills this requirement. One lounge for each class is planned and Aztech has designed the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems for two such lounges.
The challenges for renovating such spaces not intended for this use, in historic buildings is evident. Creative coordination of the systems with the existing structure was essential. The spaces were previously utility areas without the services required for finished spaces. Ventilation and cooling had to be added with almost no apparent available ceiling space.
Working closely with Choate personnel, including the Facility and Maintenance Department systems were designed that performed the desired purpose as well as being easy to maintain. The students are very happy with their renovated lounges as are the Choate maintenance staff.
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