Last Tuesday, the Northeast Community Propel Academy, a K-8 school with the capacity for 1,660 students, opened In Philadelphia. The 180,000-sf building was financed and constructed through a public-private partnership between the School District of Philadelphia and Gilbane Development Company, which provided turnkey development for the new school.
Gilbane Building Company acted as the project’s design-builder and hired Stantec as its architect. Gilbane was one of three firms that submitted bid proposals to the school district in the fall of 2017, and received the contract the following January, says Susan Tully, Senior Project Manager and Market Leader for Gilbane’s K-12 Center of Excellence. The school’s design was completed by October 2019, and after some municipal delays construction began in March 2020, “on the day the world stopped” because of the coronavirus pandemic, quipped Tully.
Propel Academy is in a multicultural section of Philadelphia that “is booming,” says Tully, with lots of service sector workers. But the number of school seats hadn’t kept pace with the community’s growth; Tully notes that another school there, built for 600 students, now serves 2,000. The district “knew they need to get a new school built quickly,” she recalls.
The school is on land that previously had served as baseball and softball fields. As part of the P3 agreement, Gilbane Development purchased the land from the school district for $1, and upon completion of construction on August 19, 2021 sold the property and school back to the school district for $79 million.
“Speed to market was a driver” for the P3 arrangement, says Luis Vildostegui, Stantec’s Senior Principal and Education Leader, whom BD+C interviewed with Jennifer Grafton, Stantec’s Project Manager and Senior Associate. Vildostegui notes that Propel Academy’s design reflects the school district’s gravitation toward a more socialized teaching model that focuses on learning with peers.
SCHOOL FEATURES COLLABORATIVE ZONES
Gilbane and Stantec, with Fengate Asset Management, were part of a construction financing consortium that in June broke ground on six K-12 schools in Prince George’s County, Md. This was the first P3 for schools in the nation, and it’s expected to cut in half the time it takes to complete those schools, which are scheduled to open in 2023.
In Philadelphia, the Propel Academy project “is one of the most collaborative I’ve worked on in my career,” says Tully. One of its advantages was Gilbane’s relationship with Stantec, which provided architecture, interior design, and civil engineering services. “We were able to advance the construction before the designs were completed, which fast-tracked the project,” says Grafton. And because Stantec had worked previously with the school district and Gilbane, “we could act as an intermediary” when decisions were made, says Vildostegui.
Stantec’s office in Philadelphia is right across the street from the school district’s, so it set up a big room where all of the project’s stakeholders could meet conveniently. “We were all there, resolving problems from the beginning,” says Vildostegui. Any additions or changes during the design or construction process had to be “cost-neutral solutions,” says Tully. (Nicole Ward, AIA, the school district’s design manager, was its liaison on this project.)
Those discussions included “challenging some basic assumptions,” says Vildostegui, like the building’s placement, which is adjacent to a park that exposures city kids to natural environments they might not see otherwise. During the permitting stage, the building team and school district also hashed out whether a retention basin on the site should be above or below ground (they ultimately chose the latter).
The building team’s early collaboration allowed its members to react quicker when there were materials shortages or delays. “We didn’t need to make compromises,” says Tully.
The Propel Academy was build on land that once served as ball fields, and is located near a tree-lined park.
A ‘SHINING SUCCESS STORY’ FOR P3s
Propel Academy is organized into clusters of classrooms and collaborative zones for small learning groups. There are six classrooms per grade for grades 1-5, and nine classrooms per grade for grades 6-8. The classrooms are positioned around shared media and tech commons within each grade level house, and the number of classrooms can be adjusted as needed.
The school also has science labs, music rooms, and “exploration” spaces, says Grafton. “It’s transformative,” says Vildostegui about the school’s design, that had to meet what Tully calls the school district’s “strict design standards” that are informed by LEED and WELL guidelines.
Tully sees Propel Academy as a “test case” for the school district, and believes P3 financial agreements will be more in vogue for financing school construction to meet clients’ demands for speed. “It’s a shining success story” for the P3 approach, adds Vildostegui. “It’s not for every project, but it’s quicker than a traditional design-bid-build because the issues get moved upfront.”
Related Stories
K-12 Schools | Nov 10, 2015
New York City opens SOM-designed net-zero school
The Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability at Sandy Ground will produce 662,500 kWh of energy, which will offset the amount of energy it consumes.
Designers | Sep 21, 2015
Can STEAM power the disruptive change needed in education?
Companies need entrepreneurial and creative workers that possess critical thinking skills that allow them to function in collaborative teams. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education might be the solution.
Giants 400 | Aug 7, 2015
K-12 SCHOOL SECTOR GIANTS: To succeed, school design must replicate real-world environments
Whether new or reconstructed, schools must meet new demands that emanate from the real world and rapidly adapt to different instructional and learning modes, according to BD+C's 2015 Giants 300 report.
Contractors | Jul 29, 2015
Consensus Construction Forecast: Double-digit growth expected for commercial sector in 2015, 2016
Despite the adverse weather conditions that curtailed design and construction activity in the first quarter of the year, the overall construction market has performed extremely well to date, according to AIA's latest Consensus Construction Forecast.
K-12 Schools | Jun 30, 2015
San Diego charter school finds home in existing public library building
The school is located on the sixth and seventh floors of a downtown public library and embraces flexible school days, internship opportunities, and project-based learning.
Codes and Standards | Jun 18, 2015
New document addresses school safety and security
In an effort to balance security and fire safety features within codes, standards and planning, NFPA hosted a two-day workshop, “School Safety, Codes and Security”, last December. The findings are now available in an NFPA report.
K-12 Schools | May 12, 2015
Bjarke Ingels completes Danish high school sports and arts expansion
By placing parts of the new building beneath the football fields, the students are able to walk through the sunken sports hall at the center of the school´s courtyard to the classrooms, cafeteria, and out to the main entrance at street level.
Sponsored | | May 11, 2015
Fire-rated glass separation helps merge new and old pools into a single connected aquatics center
Clear fire-rated glazing helps create a light-filled, safe space for student athletes and spectators in Niles, Illinois.
K-12 Schools | Apr 28, 2015
How to create an environment where students want to succeed
According to a 2014 Gallup poll, our school system not only kills children’s creativity, but also takes its toll on their motivation, writes Perkins+Will's Tinka Rogic.
K-12 Schools | Mar 22, 2015
Budget woes may lead to moratorium on school projects in Alaska
The bill would suspend 70% cost reimbursement from state to localities.
