Since last December 14, safety has become the paramount concern of every school official and school board member in this country. December 14, 2012, was the date on which 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn. It was the second deadliest mass shooting by a single person in U.S. history, after the Virginia Tech tragedy of 2007.
Sandy Hook galvanized school officials, parents, public officials, and police departments, as they scrambled to figure out how to prevent a similar incident in their communities. Many asked: Could better design and construction of schools—preschool, elementary, and secondary—prevent or at least mitigate the casualty rate at another Sandy Hook? And could this be done not only for schools to be built in the future, where Building Teams would be working from a blank slate, but for the tens of thousands of extant schools from Maine to Hawaii, where physical conditions are often literally set in stone?
TOP K-12 SCHOOL SECTOR ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
2012 K-12 Revenue ($)1 DLR Group $38,250,0002 SHW Group $32,328,8433 PBK $31,760,0004 IBI Group $27,977,8605 HMC Architects $25,407,1646 Stantec $21,586,2097 Fanning/Howey Associates $20,247,0008 Perkins+Will $19,938,2119 Heery International $16,561,30310 LPA $14,438,017
TOP K-12 SCHOOL SECTOR ENGINEERING FIRMS
2012 K-12 Revenue ($)1 AECOM Technology Corp. $100,150,0002 URS Corp. $55,927,7783 STV $45,937,0004 Jacobs Engineering Group $36,550,0005 Parsons Brinckerhoff $19,100,0006 TTG $9,985,3007 Shive-Hattery $7,379,4258 BRPH $4,900,0009 KCI Technologies $4,200,00010 Dewberry $3,852,971
TOP K-12 SCHOOL SECTOR CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
2012 K-12 Revenue ($)1 Gilbane $947,077,0002 Balfour Beatty $483,944,4763 Turner Corporation, The $357,910,0004 CORE Construction Group $284,198,3755 Skanska USA $273,418,3516 McCarthy Holdings $260,000,0007 Kraus-Anderson Construction $211,000,0008 JE Dunn Construction $169,860,4369 Consigli Construction $148,883,46810 Barton Malow $139,236,049
These questions inspired a gathering of public officials, school designers and contractors, safety experts, and facility directors convened last February in Washington, D.C., by the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International. The daylong CEFPI Security Summit provided a framework in which to consider what school districts can do to provide a safer environment for children, teachers, and administrative staff. Following are the recommendations of immediate interest to the design and construction community.
Infrastructure needs beefing up, says CEFPI report
Emergency preparedness and response must be woven into the very fabric of school life, according to the CEFPI Security Summit report. The report recommends creating “concentric circles of protection” through the following means:
- Providing the ability to lock students behind doors to protect them from aggression (door hardware companies report that they cannot keep up with demand for lock systems since Sandy Hook)
- Shielding students from large windows
- Safeguarding children when they meet in large groups for meals and assemblies
- Installing high-security keying systems with control measures in place for master keys
- Securing children, teachers, and staff via secured vestibules and remote access to select exterior and interior doors (through keyless entry systems)
- Eliminating access to unauthorized persons by improving line-of-sight conditions and installing CCTV cameras
- Protecting entrances through the use of bollards and safeguarding the exterior and perimeter—including playgrounds, athletic fields, and parking lots—via upgraded lighting and camera monitoring
Mass notifiation high on school districts' agenda
The CEFPI report also recommends action on crisis communications, notably:
- Providing an effective public address system, with a backup power source
- Use of multiple communications devices, including mobile panic devices worn by key administrators
- Installation of security cameras and use of emergency radio channels
School districts are already acting. Plainfield District 202, the fourth-largest school district in Illinois, just ordered $180,000 worth of wireless alarm systems for its 30 schools.
As the fall term approaches, design and construction firms, as well as manufacturers of safety products and systems, will be called upon to safeguard the nation’s schoolchildren even more vigorously than in the past.
Read BD+C's full Giants 300 Report
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Research facility added to Texas Medical Center
Situated on the Texas Medical Center’s North Campus in Houston, the new Methodist Hospital Research Institute is a 12-story, 440,000-sf facility dedicated to translational research. Designed by New York City-based Kohn Pedersen Fox, with healthcare, science, and technology firm WHR Architects, Houston, the building has open, flexible labs, offices, and amenities for use by 90 principal investigators and 800 post-doc trainees and staff.
| Mar 11, 2011
Blockbuster remodel transforms Omaha video store into a bank
A former Hollywood Video store in Omaha, Neb., was renovated and repurposed as the SAC Federal Credit Union, Ames Branch. Architects at Leo A Daly transformed the outdated 5,000-sf retail space into a modern facility by wrapping the exterior in poplar siding and adding a new glass storefront that floods the interior with natural light.
| Mar 11, 2011
Historic McKim Mead White facility restored at Columbia University
Faculty House, a 1923 McKim Mead White building on Columbia University’s East Campus, could no longer support the school’s needs, so the historic 38,000-sf building was transformed into a modern faculty dining room, graduate student meeting center, and event space for visiting lecturers, large banquets, and alumni organizations.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Oregon childhood center designed at child-friendly scale
Design of the Early Childhood Center at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore., focused on a achieving a child-friendly scale and providing outdoor learning environments.
| Mar 11, 2011
Guests can check out hotel’s urban loft design, music selection
MODO, Advaya Hospitality’s affordable new lifestyle hotel brand, will have an urban Bauhaus loft design and target design-, music-, and tech-savvy guest who will have access to thousands of tracks in vinyl, CD, and MP3 formats through a partnership with Downtown Music. Guest can create their own playlists, and each guest room will feature iPod docks and large flat-screen TVs.
| Mar 11, 2011
Construction of helicopter hangars in South Carolina gets off the ground
Construction is under way on a $26 million aviation support facility for South Carolina National Guard helicopters. Hendrick Construction, the project’s Charlotte, N.C.-based GC, is building the 111,000-sf Donaldson Hangar facility on the 30-acre South Carolina Technology & Aviation Center, Greenville.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
