Choosing Building Materials

With today’s budgets straining many school districts, lowering operational costs in facilities is paramount. When designing a new school or renovating an existing one, material selection can have major impacts down the road when considering the life cycle costs of a building.

1. What materials will extend the life of the building?

2. What materials require minimal maintenance?

3. Can I afford to pay a little more now if necessary to save a lot in the future?

Exterior materials – Brick, stone, or masonry materials are extremely durable and easy to maintain. Pre-finished metal also generally holds up well. At the smaller scale, think about exposed steel columns and lintels. If they are galvanized, they would not need painted every few years. Similarly, anodized aluminum door and window frames would not require paint like hollow metal frames.

Interior materials – There is no end to the options of materials to select from. Evaluate the use of each space to determine where the greatest impact can be made. Higher end materials may not be necessary in the entire building.

Corridors – These are high traffic areas that see a lot of abuse over time. Masonry in these areas have the same benefit as when they are used on the exterior of the building. If the walls are drywall, consider placing ceramic tile, laminate panels or another stronger and cleanable material over the face of the wall. For the floors, if the budget allows, terrazzo will last the life of the building and does not require waxing like vinyl tile does. Other options that would eliminate the need to wax floors could be porcelain tile or solid vinyl tile, among others.

Classrooms – Finishes here can greatly vary depending on how each district uses their spaces. The common choices are vinyl tile or carpet. Tile offers the most flexibility in a space since rugs can easily be placed over them. If there are sinks in the classrooms, this also keeps these areas easy to clean. Carpet can be beneficial, especially in second floor classrooms, to lessen the sound of moving furniture into the first floor rooms below. Extending a higher end finish in these rooms is often difficult to do with many budgets, but the same advantages could be seen here as those mentioned for the corridors.

Restrooms and kitchens – Quarry tile, ceramic and porcelain tiles, and poured quartz flooring are all good options for these spaces. In the facilities we have been working on recently, we are seeing more districts choose the poured quartz flooring because there are no grout lines that will discolor over time. This also provides a seamless surface to clean.

This is clearly just touching the surface of the many material choices that have to be made on each project. I encourage you to talk through the benefits of each material with your architect, keeping in mind the life cycle implications of these decisions.

Building as a teaching tool

What if your school facility itself could be a tool for teaching your students? A while ago, I toured Lady Bird Johnson Middle School in Irving, Texas, a net zero school (one that generates the same amount of energy as it consumes) and saw this in action.

There were a couple of select locations where the ceiling had intentionally been left out so that everyone could see the inner workings of the building. The different mechanical and plumbing lines were all color coded so that the different systems could be identified and followed. If your district has a career and technology program at the high school level, this could be very beneficial for architecture and engineering students to gain a basic understanding on how a building works.

In the main corridor, there were several interactive displays each with their own theme that would explain the different systems in the building in a manner that middle school students could understand. There were three dimensional diagrams of the earth and how a geothermal system worked on one wall, water collection, use and recycling on another and information on the sun and how it powered solar panels that in turn powered the school on yet another.

TV screens showed the energy management system so that students could see how much energy the facility was currently using. A floor plan of the school was on one monitor with each room colored green, yellow, or red based on the amount of energy being consumed. It became a positive challenge where students would try to find ways to conserve more energy and figure out how to eliminate the red rooms on the map.

Some of these may seem like grand ideas, but there are small ways to get started. Place recycling bins throughout the building and educate students and staff on how to use them. Perhaps it can be a competition among grade levels on who can generate the least amount of trash. Share the positive impacts of daylighting by comparing light levels and coloration on different surfaces, general feel of the space, etc. When students understand the environment in which they are working, they know better how to respond and interact with their surroundings, often showing greater respect and pride for their space.

Bond Planning

Have you started planning for your next bond issue? Here are some tips to get started. First, set aside some to time to plan. Yes you have to plan to plan. Getting organized is critical to having a successful building program. . 

Organize a team to gather data that can identify the needs in your district. A demographer to gather population information so that you can identify pockets of growth in your community, a financial adviser can assist in how you can finance the bond and what the tax impact will be, a bond attorney can assist in the legal matters of holding a bond election, an architect can assist in developing a facility assessment of any existing campuses that may need renovations or additions and can estimate the construction costs. Also enlist your own staff to evaluate your current grade level structure and sizes of your existing campuses and offer ideas for improvements. 

After the facility assessment is completed, enlist local community members to form a citizen's advisory group. Have the advisory group study the information and offer ideas as to what they feel are the critical needs and how best to accomplish the needed facility improvements.

Take time to study past bond elections and why they passed, or if they didn't, understand the root cause of the failure. This step alone could be the deciding factor as to whether or not your current plan is the right one. 

The planning for a bond election can vary depending on your community and assessing the needs. It can take from as little as a couple of months to a year. If you set aside ample time to effectively plan, your chances of success are much greater.

Michael D. King AIA

What is Xeriscaping?

What is Xeriscaping? Well it is a word which is often misunderstood and misspelled as “zero-scape." Some people may believe this term means the plants do not need any watering to survive, but in fact, all plants do need some amount of water. Xeriscaping is a word created by combining the Greek word "xeric" with "scape," to read literally, "dry view." We use the term to define a low-water use landscape, as opposed to a no water use.
A well-designed xeriscape can include a variety of plants which provide seasonal color. Other benefits of using xeriscape plants are, they can attract wildlife such as butterflies and hummingbirds, requires low maintenance, reduces the amount of turf area and conserve water. This of course will also include the most efficient irrigation layout and proper specified system which your landscape architect will do for your facilities. Not all xeriscape plants are cactus “type” plants. There are a variety of native grasses, shrubs and ground covers which exist. The most attractive landscapes usually reflect the region for which your landscape architect will design for. Landscapes should take advantage of the lands natural features in which they exist.

Xeriscapeing in majority of cases is not costly. Your Landscape designer would likely design such a layout around the perimeter of a facility. So if your district is planning for a new school or your maintenance department is looking to replacing several plants, make sure to ask your landscape designer about xeriscaping.

Career Tech - Planning for Programs of Study

An exciting trend in education in the past several years has been the continued shift from providing the standard 'vocational' classes that your parents may have experienced, to now providing career tech prep classes that are designed to integrate the core curriculum classes into the students program of study. The programs of study are simply the career path courses that the student has selected, for example; Health Sciences, Auto Tech, Human Resources, Education, Information Technology, Arts and Communication, Construction Technology, and many more.

Many of the programs will carry industry certifications that the student can earn during the course of the class which can be applied to their resume' to assist in securing employment after high school. Also many programs offer courses that can articulate as college credits for those students continuing on to higher education studies. 

The trend for many medium to large school districts is to provide a magnet center that students from each high school in the district can attend. The magnet center can offer a multitude of programs in one central location, as opposed to providing the more expensive shops such as auto tech/auto body and several locations in the school district. 

Planning for the career center can be a daunting task. You should plan on several months of planning activities. We recommend setting up a citizens advisory committee in assisting in the planning. This committee can be made up of the local business community, local colleges, concerned citizens, and all stakeholders such as your current career tech staff and students.  The committee can give recommendations for the courses that can benefit your community and students. Surveying your student body as to what their career interests are can also be very beneficial in designing the course offerings. A key to a successful career center will be marketing the program to your community and students, your counseling staff must be on board with the program as they are the ones actively talking to students on a daily basis. We had one district that developed some short videos about the upcoming career center and showed them in the local movie theaters. Not only were students viewing them, but their parents as well. On opening day for the career center, there was standing room only at the dedication; a testament as to well the staff had promoted the center. 

Start your planning process early and involve as many groups as you can in the planning process. Once the career center opens, your business community can play a large role in providing internships and support for the students in their various programs of study.

Michael D. King AIA

Construction Costs - Tracking Inflation

Tracking construction costs is a full time job. There are many factors nation wide that affect construction costs in the labor market and materials. The demand on building materials can even be affected by the world market as seen last year in the price of steel due to the massive amount of construction on going in China. So how does all this affect you and the new school that you are planning to build next year? Your design professional must keep track of current events/trends in the construction market in order for you to effectively plan what you are going to design and build and be able to accurately project the cost of those projects. This is a difficult task and I often tell my clients that my crystal ball is a bit fuzzy... meaning that it is difficult to predict the future regarding where costs will be for construction. A major influence in cost escalation is the amount and intensity of hurricanes that hit the United States in a given year. Needless to say, predicting hurricanes and the damage that they will leave behind is an impossible task. The construction market for the past several years has essentially been flat due the recession. This year however, as the economy has improved, construction costs have been on the rise. Predictions of the construction cost index at the beginning of 2012 for the year have been exceeded already as the third quarter costs have been evaluated ending in Sept. Even though steel costs have gone down the past quarter, a total of -1.3%, cement has gone up 1.2% and lumber has gone up 2.1%. Wages for common labor and skilled labor have gone up .9% and 1.3% respectively for the third quarter. As smaller subcontractors have gone out of business due to the recession, those contractors still around have picked up more work and are demanding increased labor costs as they get busier. So what does my crystal ball say? We are planning for construction inflation to be in the range of 8% to 10% next year barring any major natural weather events. Plan to set aside as much funds as you can to offset the escalation and any unforeseen occurrences. Michael King AIA

Green Roofs

What if your facility’s roof could be usable space, more than just a place to set roof top units? What if you could use this area as an outdoor classroom, a small garden for a science class or even grow herbs or vegetables for the kitchen? Green roofs, or vegetated roofs, help capture stormwater runoff, reduce heat gain into the building and lessen the urban heat island effect outside of the building. Green roofs are roof systems that are capable of growing grasses, herbs, plants, flowers and even trees of various species, textures, and heights.

There are two different categories of green roofs. Extensive roofs can be placed on slopes up to 30 degrees. They are more lightweight (12-35 psf) with a growth medium of 1-6 inches. These are for low growing plants that typically require minimal maintenance and have little water requirements. Intensive roofs have a growth medium of 6 or more inches and can be designed to grow trees, shrubs, or gardens. These often are higher maintenance and will likely require irrigation. This design can only be used on low sloped roofs. Paver systems can also be integrated into these roof systems.

Our firm recently completed a football stadium for a school district that placed their locker rooms and offices below the bleachers and main concourse where fans entered the stadium and could access concessions. The roof for the locker rooms became a paver system that was supported by small pedestals at each corner. All joints between pavers allowed water to seep through to the sloped roof system below, where it was then drained to internal roof drains like a typical low slope roof system. This allowed the project to maintain a tight footprint on the existing site and maximize usable space, capitalizing on opportunities for fans to maintain a good view to the field from the concession lines.

When considering if these roof systems are a viable option for your project, here are a few things to think about. One, the added installation cost of the roof system and increased load on the roof structure will add to the construction cost. These roof systems may cost 20-50% more than single-ply or multi-ply roof systems. On the other hand, these roofs have longer life spans due to moderated temperature swings and can have lower maintenance (depending on plant species). These also provide a quality space from which students can learn more about their environment.