Building Statistics

ARCHITECTURE

North Forsyth High School addition and renovation project involves a main building and gym portion. The main building enables a plan to alleviate the overcrowding in the school with the addition of 16 classrooms and a new cafeteria. Currently, the school’s floor plan is in a U-shape with an 800 wing detached from the main portion. This causes students to have to walk outside the building and through the bus/visitor parking lot, to travel between classes. This creates an unsafe and unsupervised condition for the students. Filling the current U-shape with the additional space of classrooms and cafeteria allows students to travel within the building to reach their designated area.

On the other side of the main building, an entirely new gym is being constructed next to the existing gym. The main building will be connected to the gym with a covered walkway. This new gymnasium will include seating for 2,500 people, three ROTC classrooms and a competition rifle range in the basement. The new area allows space for the high school to host regional basketball tournaments and provides an assembly space for students, faculty and teachers to gather.

The design intent of these new portions of North Forsyth High School is meant to match the existing building, with brick and metal panel façade and matching standing roof panels. The entrance will be an open, 2-story canopied area with a curved standing seam metal roof and aluminum storefront windows. Steel arched trusses will be exposed, creating an open, welcoming area for students to enter.

MAJOR NATIONAL MODEL CODES

2012 IBC

2000 IBC

2012 International Fire Code

2012 International Plumbing Code

2012 International Mechanical Code

2012 International Fuel Gas Code

2014 National Electrical Code

2009 International Energy Consumption Code

NFPA 101 Life Safety Code

2010 American Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design

ZONING

No restrictions other than front, side and rear yard building setbacks. The building’s site is next to residential property and light commercial properties.

Historical Requirements

Not applicable to this project.

BUILDING ENCLOSURE

Both the main building and gymnasium addition mostly consists of block and running bond brick with a combination of metal wall panel shelves to match the existing portion of the building. At the main entrance, there will be aluminum storefront windows and hollow metal door framing. In the 2-story gymnasium pop up area, there will opaque panels added to allow natural light into the space.

Standing seam metal roofing will be constructed around the perimeter of the building where the entrance is located and EPDM roofing within the perimeter.

When visitors and students pull into the high school parking lot, the existing standing seam metal and new standing seam metal roof will be seen side by side. Because of the exposure the existing roof has already experienced, it would be difficult to match the color of that roof with the new metal roof. In order to resolve this difference in color, portions of the existing metal roof were recycled during demolition and used on the new canopy to disguise the difference in color.

SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES

Reuse of canopy roofing material

Recycled concrete from demolition

Refabricated kitchen equipment

Construction

The delivery method of North Forsyth High School Addition and Renovation project was CM @ risk. Barton Malow is the construction manager of the job and Foreman Seeley Fountain is the Architect. Barton Malow was brought on the project early on, and assisted in the methods of overcoming the challenge of effectively constructing the building during occupation. Under the CM are various subcontractors for mechanical, electrical, underground and utilities, concrete, steel, etc.

At the start of breaking ground, a portion of the existing building was demolished in order to construct the addition of the main building. A temporary corridor needed to be constructed in order to allow students to travel throughout the building without entering into the construction zone. Utility work also needed to be completed before student’s arrival in order to prevent utility outages in the school.

During excavation and foundation phases of the project, a crane will be used to gang lift the foundation wall at the gymnasium as well as a separate crane to place the rooftop HVAC units. The deliveries and drop offs had to be scheduled around the schools major activities. Because students would be occupying the building from 7-4, concrete pours occurred during the night shift, at 3 or 4 am. Erection of structural steel occurred during students fall and winter breaks to prevent potentially causing safety concerns within the building.

Lighting

All of the lighting in the main building and gymnasium are LED which are controlled by ultrasonic occupying sensors. The classrooms have LED volumetric troffers, the cafeteria has LED down lights and hallways have LED acrylic Troffers and down lights. The main entrance utilizes natural light with large 2 story windows that face south. There are two 85’x21’ areas in the cafeteria that have a raised roof for high windows above that bring light into the space.

The large 2-story gymnasium area consists of an upper level open track, which is lit by natural light from the translucent panels in the walls of the upper level, open roof area. Windows allow natural light to enter the main entrance to assist the LED down lighting. LED highbay lighting is found in the gym that produces 10,000 to 16,000 lumens over the gymnasium floor, track and the bleachers.

Electrical

The electrical room is found in the middle of the main building addition between the classrooms and the kitchen and in the north section of the gymnasium next to the elevator. The main building is equipped with two main switchboards. They are fed by a 4000 amp and 2500 amp, three-phase, 4-wire. For each, there are 6 sets and 10 sets of 4#600kcmil 3 ½”C encased in concrete. An 85kW/106.25kVA emergency generator services the building with 100/3 and 70/3 circuit breakers.

The gymnasium is fed by 2500 amp, three phase, 4 wire main switchboard with a pad mounted, dry type transformer with a 277/480V, 3 phase, wire. The wires that feed the main switchboard are encased in 3,000 psi concrete. The emergency generator runs off of natural gas and is fed by a 50kW/62.25kVA, three-phase wire. Each transformer is placed on a 6” high concrete “house-keeping” pad.

Mechanical

There are a total of 31 rooftop units that will be overall in the building. Most of the units are on the existing roof. In the main building addition area, one RTU serves the kitchen area, three serve the cafeteria area, and one serves the administration area. The classrooms and administration area are fed by 2 separate dedicated outdoor air systems. These DOAS are air-cooled, dual enthalpy wheels and powered by natural gas. There are 4 fans in the kitchen and a fan in the janitors closet and one in the electrical room. There is a variable refrigerant flow system (VRFSU) in the administration area. The main building utilizes a water source heat pump system. The classrooms and administration offices supply the hallways air through transfer air ducts. Transfer air ducts are also located between adjacent classrooms and administration offices.

In the gymnasium there are 7 rooftop units. There is one DOAS that feed the gym classrooms, 4 ductless split system (DSSA), 16 variable refrigerant flow system units (VRFSU), 11 roof mounted centrifugal fans.

Structural

Both the main building addition and gymnasiums foundation consist of a 4” SOG with 1’ deep rebar reinforced turndowns. The SOG is reinforced with 6x6 welded wire fabric and sits over a vapor barrier and 4” of crushed stone. The gymnasium includes a 14’ retaining wall that is 12 inches thick of poured concrete, reinforced with #6 bar at 12” O.C. A gang lift system is used to erect this retaining wall.

In the main building the girders, beams and joist vary in size. Typically in the admin area 20k4 steel joists sit on W18x35 steel beams. The classrooms vary from 14k1 to 26k5 girders sitting on W21x44 beams. In the cafeteria, 20k3 steel joists, equally spaced at 6’ O.C. max sit on W21x44, W18x35 or W21x50 commonly. Typical columns in the main building are Hss6x6x3/8.

The gymnasium has vertical angle x-bracing between joists, at posts and horizontal angle x-bracing at the bottom chords of joists. There are mostly 20kcs3 steel joists at a max of 5’3”O.C. sitting on W21x14 beams in the main area of the gym. The roof decking is made up of 22GA acoustical metal deck. At the bleachers beams are typically W21x44 and w12x14 on W24x48 girders at the track and north and south sections of the gymnasium. The upper floor slab is made up of 3 ½ NW concrete on 2”-22 galvanized composite metal decking. HSS8x8x1/2 posts run up to the roof on the exterior of the track and HSS4x4x5/16 posts run to the roof that are located inside interior walls in classrooms, locker rooms etc.

Transportation

The elevator located in the gym has a minimum slab of 1 foot with a 2’x2’x2’ deep sump pump pit and #5 at 12” O.C. reinforcement. The gymnasium elevator is located at the northeast section of the building. Four stairwells are included in the new gym at each of the four corners.

The main building addition is one story, so no stairs or elevators are included. One of the main purposes of this building is to create transportation for students without the need for students to travel outside.

Telecommunications

Speakers are located throughout both the gymnasium and the main building addition. Classrooms in the main building include IR-satellite, which allows teachers to utilize the speakers of the whiteboard to project their voice through speakers in the classrooms.

Fire Protection

In the main building addition, to separate it from the existing building, a two-hour rated wall is constructed. In the temporary corridor, the walls are needed to be two-hour rated as directed by the fire marshal during review of the drawings. The temporary corridor will be the exterior wall and the barrier, which separates the construction from the occupied space. The wall needs to be two hour rated and four feet above the existing roof to prevent spread of fire. The building is separated into zones to meet the adequate travel distance in case of an emergency. A smoke partition is separating the classrooms and administration from the cafeteria area and the gymnasium from the surrounding classrooms, offices and lockerrooms. A 1-hour rated fire wall also encompasses the mechanical room preventing the spread of fire.