The BelovED Community Charter School’s Middle School building recently had its topping out celebration at its half-acre parcel of land located at 535 Grand Street in Jersey City, N.J.
The 53,000-sf building will make use of its small site and include 18 general classrooms and a variety common spaces for both students and staff. Outside the building, a parking lot with space for 29 cars and outdoor assembly/recreation space will also be included.
The building’s ground floor will include the parking lot and an entrance lobby with an elevator and a security desk. A loading dock with a 20-foot-wide overhead coiling gate will also be included on the ground floor. The second floor will cantilever over the parking lot and house a 3,600-sf cafetorium and kitchen, an office suite, a nurse’s office, classrooms, and two sets of double stairs in addition to the elevator. The third floor will include additional classrooms, a 750-sf multi-purpose room, a gymnasium, an art classroom, locker rooms, and a main distribution frame room. The fourth and final floor will house a 750-sf music room with a stepped stage for rehearsals and performances, more classrooms, a special education classroom, and a teacher’s lounge/break room.
Courtesy Urbahn Architects.
Due to the site’s low-bearing soil, Hollister Construction Services installed 150 concrete-filled, 100-foot-deep steel piles with pile caps and piers to support the foundation system of concrete grade beams and the building’s structural steel frame with lightweight concrete on galvanized composite metal deck. The building’s façade will feature Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS), a non-load bearing, exterior wall cladding on steel studs, with Batt insulation. Energy efficiency will be also improved by thermally- proficient low emissivity (or low-e) windows with high visible transmittance (VT) properties that will allow increased amounts of natural light into the school’s interiors.
The new school building, which will serve grades six to nine, will open in the second half of 2019 as it welcomes its first 360 students.
Related Stories
Education Facilities | Sep 20, 2018
Teen Center of Excellence under construction in Ferguson, Mo.
Arcturis is the Architect for the project.
Education Facilities | Sep 12, 2018
Security vs. 21st century learning: We shouldn’t have to choose
In order to effectively talk about school design, we need to start by understanding what a school is designed to do.
Education Facilities | Sep 12, 2018
350,000-sf High Tech High School opens in Secaucus, N.J.
The technical school is on the Frank J. Cargiulo Campus.
Education Facilities | Aug 30, 2018
Construction completes on only dedicated STEAM facility for girls in Rhode Island
LLB Architects designed the building.
Education Facilities | Aug 24, 2018
Encourage student wellness by incorporating active design into college campus architecture
Before you incorporate active design into your college campus, you need to understand exactly what doing so entails.
Education Facilities | Aug 21, 2018
Meet the new vo-techs
Career and technical education is preparing K-12 students earlier than ever for college and the job market.
Education Facilities | Aug 20, 2018
More districts are reusing empty offices, stores, and other buildings to upgrade their schools
Older schools, with their small windows and rooms and creaky infrastructure, are tough and expensive to retrofit.
Education Facilities | Aug 14, 2018
Making schools more secure is imperative, but how best to do that isn't settled yet
In the first 21 weeks of 2018 alone, there were 23 school shootings where someone was killed or injured, according to CNN.
Education Facilities | Aug 13, 2018
Is STEM running out of steam?
Has STEM, which the business community urged school districts to embrace, been oversold as a career path?
Education Facilities | Aug 7, 2018
High-tech instruction space trains students in manufacturing robots
Harley Ellis Devereaux served as lead designer and lab planner for the project.
