Oakland Elementary/High School Out to Bid
OAKLAND, Calif. — A new elementary/high school for the Oakland Unified School District is in the process of collecting final bids, due Nov. 18, at which point a contractor will be selected and construction on the facility will begin early next year.
To be situated in Oakland’s Lake Merritt neighborhood, the $61 million project includes a 123,000-square-foot complex with spaces for 350 elementary students; a 180-student high school, and 168-student child development center. The project has been designed to achieve net-zero energy and earn certification from the Collaborative for High Performance Schools Verified program, a third-party measurement of building performance.
The project, named the Downtown Educational Complex, will be constructed in phases to accommodate the student population currently situated on the property, says Robert Simons, a principal at the West Coast-based design firm MVE Institutional.
“On the current site exists a high school located in a building constructed in the 1930s, a building that will ultimately be torn down,” says Simons. “Also on the site is the La Escuelita elementary school, which is situated in [portable classrooms]. Then you have two child development centers, one in a portable and the other in an existing building. The goal of this Educational Complex is to replace all of those structures, plus increase enrollment capabilities on the site.
“The challenge of the project is to do all that while the school remains in session,” he says. “You can imagine the difficulties of building roughly 123,000 square feet of new facility while classes are being held on campus.”
The Educational Complex will be constructed in two phases: Phase I will include building the elementary school, a large multipurpose room for use by both elementary and high school students, a community health clinic to serve the school and surrounding neighborhoods, and a new IT center and television broadcasting studio for the school district. The multipurpose room will function as a cafeteria, gymnasium, and theater area.
Phase II will encompass constructing a replacement MetWest High School, which is a college preparatory-like school. In addition, Phase II will include building a child development center large enough to consolidate three of the OUSD’s existing child development facilities. Simons says they expect to begin construction on Phase II by 2012, with the goal of finishing the entire project by the summer of 2013.
“It was very important to the community to have individual identities for each of the schools, so there are three individual entries to the campus — one for the elementary, one for the child development center, and one for the high school,” Simons says.
Largely funded by a 2007 local bond measure, the Educational Complex features 11 high school and 19 elementary school classrooms laid out around gathering areas located within both schools. The buildings are linked by a common indoor walkway.
“A major design goal of the project was to reduce the energy footprint of the facility to as little as possible,” says Simons.
The Educational Complex will generate 232,500-kilowatt hours of annual electricity onsite via 550 roof-mounted photovoltaic modules, supplying 100 percent of the energy needs of the school buildings, says Simons. Other sustainable features include passive evaporative cooling towers with misting systems to cool down incoming air, and rainwater collection cisterns designed to capture runoff for irrigation uses.
“We have also added in natural daylighting everywhere,” Simons says. “There is natural ventilation throughout the whole facility, as well as energy efficient lighting, high efficiency HVAC systems, Energy Star appliances, and, in all the classrooms, large overhead ceiling fans.”
Edited 11-08-10