Elementary School and Community Storm Shelter
A school built to teach 750 children every day and to shelter the whole neighborhood on the worst day of the year.
- Owner
- Confidential
- Location
- U.S.
- Market
- K–12 Education
- Delivery
- CM at-risk
- Scale
- 96,000 SF
- Completed
- 2022
A 750-student elementary school whose gym doubles as a hardened storm shelter for the whole neighborhood, opened on the first day of the school year.
The district wanted a bright, open elementary school and a community storm shelter in the same building. The gym and its corridors had to meet the storm shelter standard for extreme winds: reinforced concrete walls and roof, impact-rated doors, backup power and ventilation, with every element inspected during construction. The school had to open on the first day of classes, with the old school next door in use until the move.
The approach.
- 01
Shelter first in the sequence
The hardened gym core started first because its inspections and long-lead doors set the critical path for the whole building.
- 02
Special inspections booked by pour
Third-party inspections of rebar, concrete and anchors were scheduled pour by pour, so no wall waited for an inspector.
- 03
A safe campus during the build
A separate site entrance, fenced haul routes and no deliveries during drop-off and pickup kept construction apart from the occupied school.
- 04
Moved in over one weekend
Furniture, technology and classroom setup were staged and installed by our crews over a single weekend before teachers arrived.
The outcome.
“Most days that gym is just a gym. We built it for the one day it has to be more.”
Superintendent, PerryWester
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