Indoor Field Trips
Recent federal initiatives demand innovative facilities that support technical training for tomorrow’s workplace. In response, a new technical education center at Daytona Beach Community College stands as a cost-effective architectural expression of the nation’s school-to-work reforms.
Community colleges across the country have claimed an expanded role in workforce development, where high school juniors and seniors enroll along with adult students to learn trades. The 155,000-square-foot Advanced Technology Center (ATC) actually makes up the eighth campus for Daytona Beach Community College, but was conceived in partnership with school districts in Volusia and Flagler counties.
|
PROJECT TEAM Type: Hybrid High School/Community College Technical Preparation Facility |
Anchored with stone columns in Florida’s soft soils, the ATC integrates HVAC systems, data networks, and other building systems into the technical education curriculum. "The systems aren’t just exposed-they’re highlighted," explains Tom Bleick, project manager for Dooley & Mack Constructors Inc., which acted as construction manager-at-risk. "They’re not just something to add a little bit of architectural appeal."
Entering the building’s rotunda and moving into the atrium that serves as the central gathering space, a number of building systems can be seen at a glance. The focal point is two stories of data closets within the curved, floor-to-ceiling curtainwall, showcasing the server racks where 80 miles of cable terminates. Support columns, too, display their role.
The lesson in networking doesn’t end in the atrium, according to John Quattrone, lead designer for the project and a principal at Reynolds Smith & Hills Inc. (RS&H). "Whether you’re in the computer commons or a classroom, you get to see how the technology gets to the end-user," Quattrone says. "It’s almost as if you’re seeing the communication nervous system of a biological organism, traveling throughout the building and ultimately arriving at the desktop."
 |
| An undulating canopy provides a splash of color and breaks up the mass of the 90,000-square-foot industrial area, erected with a pre-fabricated framing system. |
The facility itself becomes an educational tool. Or, as ATC Executive Director Stan Sidor reports, "We see field trips within the building." But students needn’t always travel far. Where possible, planners strove to place the relevant building systems near dedicated labs where students study those topics, resulting in the chiller’s proximity to the HVAC lab.
While fulfilling the owners’ directive to convey a high-tech image, the facility cost only $114.50 per square foot, a good value in Florida’s current construction market. The 90,000-square foot industrial shop area was built around a pre-fabricated framing system as a low-cost strategy to quickly put the majority of the facility under roof. Housed here are high-bay shops for studies in construction, information, automotive, and manufacturing technologies.
The industrial programs accompany and enrich classroom learning. Despite the use of computers and multi-media in project presentations, books remain a fixture, and there is no goal to go paperless even though the targeted student-to-computer ratio is better than 1:1.
"The curriculum was designed so that if, for instance, a student was studying construction, their math and science courses address some of the topics they might have encountered in electronics class," says Steven Eckman, director of facilities for Daytona Beach Community College. But because such ideas are new to many, the ATC must be a vehicle for its own promotion.
Tech Prep
 |
| The cost-efficient, $17.25 million project had money left over to purchase the latest training equipment. Other units, such as this machine-tool prototyping device, were donated by businesses supporting workforce development. |
In the 1990s, the federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act and the Tech Prep extension to the Vocational Education Act created the climate for high schools and community colleges to seek mutual assistance in providing training for rapidly-evolving job markets. Many states took supplementary actions, like Florida, which passed dual-enrollment legislation.
Enhancing vocational education meant not only reinventing the old high school shop-all too often warehouses for under-performing students-but also educating the community about the changes underway in tech prep. Opportunities needed to be created and stigmas removed.
"We weren’t looking for the students at the bottom of their class, and we weren’t looking for the students with a 4.0 GPA, although those students are welcome," says Eckman, who acted as the ATC’s owner representative. "We were looking for students in the middle who wanted to get that certificate or degree on a reduced timeline."
Business was quick to lend support to the endeavor through the local workforce development board. Advice on equipment purchases came from the firms in and around Volusia and Flagler counties. Representatives from the auto industry, both manufacturers and local car dealers, advised curriculum planners on current manufacturing techniques and made suggestions to the design team regarding the layout of the automotive shops.
 |
| The high-tech facility offers sweeping views of Daytona Beach’s palmetto and a wetland area, restored as part of the project. |
Creating and maintaining business ties is essential to the ATC’s success. Quattrone says the clean, well-organized lab spaces and the exposed building systems have a second function beyond instruction. "This building supports industry by providing a highly skilled workforce," he says of the school, which has a targeted enrollment of 1,200 students. "When students and business partners come in, they see right off the bat what the curriculum is about and how teaching occurs in the building. In that sense, the facility also has a marketing mission."
When representatives from Haas Automation Inc. toured the machine shop before the facility was complete, they saw a great place to showcase their machine-tool prototyping equipment. The company donated technology worth $600,000 and pledged to update units as necessary. "We even painted the room a different color to match the Haas equipment," says Bleick.
Showcase
In its second year of operation, the ATC continues to sign multi-year partnership arrangements with businesses. The atrium provides the flexible space needed to maintain these important relationships, regularly hosting tradeshows and job fairs. This flexible space also has been reconfigured to host a regional grade school science fair and even a Saturday antique show, rendering a strong community profile.
 |
| The serpentine canopy provides shelter for the bus loading zones. High school students come to the community college campus to study construction, information, manufacturing, and automotive technologies. |
Circulation through the facility similarly lends itself to showcasing the facility for potential business partners, while also heightening the sense of activity and interrelated studies among students. A major cross-corridor was viewed as an internal street, later dubbed "Technology Boulevard."
"We didn’t think in terms of walking down corridors," says Quattrone. Glass windows along the corridor allow the building’s occupants to see class sessions in progress in both the shop areas and classrooms. "It’s not a closed building in that sense, with closed doors where you don’t know what is occurring around you," says Quattrone.
Dining facilities offer more opportunities for group interaction, including a 2,500-square-foot dividable meeting area. Quattrone’s team, including project architect Stan Coleman and interior designer Dana DeClerk, designed a two-story space with a glass-enclosed elevator that accesses the upper academic level to offer a dynamic atmosphere and encourage collaboration in small groups as well.
 |
| The atrium provides the flexible space needed to strengthen relationships with businesses hosting trade shows and job fairs. |
Meeting the needs of dual enrollment, RS&H sought to avoid creating a high school cafeteria, instead lighting the space with a combination of direct and indirect suspended fixtures. "You don’t have the sense of the large scale and noise that you have in a typical cafeteria," Quattrone says. "It’s more like what you might see in a corporate café." The café includes ports where students can plug in their laptops.
Technological needs drove construction of the ATC, which was under construction before all the equipment was purchased. Dooley & Mack Constructors was handed the task of adapting the facility to the technology. To accommodate the spray-painting booth, builders had to block out one corner of the building to later pour concrete in accordance with the exact dimensions of the underlying pit. "When you ran the sprinkler lines in there you had to make sure you weren’t compromising the ability of the booth to perform under extreme conditions," says Bleick.
|
PROJECT DATA Roofing: MBTechnology HVAC Units: York Furniture: Superior, KI, Carolina, Falcon, Bretford, Fixtures, Nova Solutions, Mayline, Spectrum Industries, August, OFS, Adjustable, Nucraft, Knoll |
Building the high-bay shops with a framing system helped bring the project’s final construction cost down to $17.25 million, $750,000 under budget. The money could be used for training equipment, costing nearly as much as the facility itself.
The building’s skin is primarily brick cavity wall and corrugated metal. RS&H called for an undulating canopy running its length to act as a bus shelter while breaking up the exterior mass of the shops. This dramatic, serpentine form is cantilevered from a row of columns on one side of the canopy, which does not actually touch the building, but appears to float while adding a splash of color to the facility.
The ATC also takes advantage of the natural setting. The facility now commands sweeping views of wetlands, which were restored and re-hydrated as part of the project. "We thought it was a unique opportunity to create that juxtaposition of the high-tech environment with the natural environment," says Quattrone. Indeed, the ATC offers unique views to students preparing for a technology-driven workplace.