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Learning Curve
Newark High School Steams Toward Finish after Early Roadblocks
by Debra Wood
Slow in starting and fraught with delays, construction at Newark’s New Central High School is finally on track and set to “graduate” later this year.
After nearly a decade in planning, followed by funding and construction difficulties, the $70 million school will be ready to open in December.
“There were all sorts of snags that put it two years behind schedule,” says Ray Lindgren, executive assistant to the superintendent for Newark Public Schools.
The new school is replacing an existing 80-year-old structure that is located on the campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Once the new project finishes, the old structure will serve as swing space for students from another school set for renovation, though the long-term status of the old Central High building is unclear.
New Central High will host a magnet program, attracting students from throughout the city interested in engineering and health careers. The Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation gave the Newark Public Schools $75,000 to equip a dental laboratory and clinic at the new school.
Johnson Jones Architects of Newark designed the new school to serve 1,200 students in ninth through 12th grade, with ninth-graders occupying the first floor and upperclassmen in the two floors above. The separation aims to give freshmen an easier transition to high school, perhaps an easier path than the project team encountered trying to complete the facility.
In a fitting illustration of the project’s difficulties, the architect began designing the replacement high school in 1998, but Hunt Construction Group, based in Indianapolis, did not start work until March 2004 – a delay caused by troubles the city faced in trying to secure construction funds, says Walt Maykowskyj, an architect with Johnson Jones.
The project finally got needed funding in 2004 from the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation, which was created in 2002 in response to a state court order to increase capital construction aid to poorer urban school districts. The agency is responsible for overseeing and funding construction of educational facilities in 31 of the districts, including Newark.
But even after securing funds, the New Central High effort hit more bumps. In early 2005, Gov. Richard Codey ordered the schools agency to stop work on all of its capital projects to allow an investigation by the state’s Office of the Inspector General into news reports about wasteful spending and poor operations. Lindgren says that review halted construction on the Newark school.
Once work resumed, Hunt kept the project on track after replacing the electrical and masonry subcontractors, says Neil Hodes, interim regional manager for the Newark District of the state school construction agency.
“Hunt took good action, stepped up to the plate as a general contractor on this job,” Hodes says.
Hunt officials declined to be interviewed for this article.
The new 259,640-sq-ft high school sits on a 6.25-acre site formerly occupied by a light-bulb manufacturing company in an otherwise residential area.
Although Newark’s municipal government and PSE&G, a utility, had conducted a partial cleanup of the site, the contractor still had to remove 8,000 tons of contaminated fill. The discovery of buried fuel tanks and utility lines brought more hiccups. The project team removed all of the tanks and contaminants onsite before proceeding.
The sloped site’s high water table also required installing 535 caissons to hold down and support the building. Caissons anchor a swimming pool as well.
Construction on the two steel-framed wings – one focused on academics and the other on larger “community” uses – was set to continue this summer with completion of the façade and interior fit-out tasks.
The project’s design mixes new and old characteristics. The exterior features graffiti-resistant masonry and spot brick on the first-floor, while the upper floors of the academic wing will have traditional masonry. Inside, there will be full communications connectivity for students and faculty, with plasma or LCD televisions hooked up to teachers’ computers.
As with most projects handled by the state school construction agency, New Central High will feature sustainable design elements and pursue the equivalent of certified-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design status. Hodes says the district is not likely to seek LEED certification and declined to explain why.
The building’s green features include a closed-loop geothermal system, with 150 400-ft-deep wells to heat and cool the building. The system circulates water at 58 degrees Fahrenheit. A heat pump will supplement heating or cooling as needed.
“The system had a higher upfront cost,” Lindgren says. “But within 10 years, it will have paid for itself in energy savings. We are trying to make all of our buildings as green as possible.”
Other green features include a reflective roof, a heat exchange and recovery system in the academic wing, and an abundance of windows to let in natural light.
Another major design theme was creating a layout that allows the community to use recreational amenities without disturbing the academic mission. That led to creation of a separate structural-steel community wing to house the school’s gymnasium, auditorium, and pool, for which the public will have after-hours access.
“The goal is to be, as much as possible, a community facility, so the academic wing is separate and can be closed off,” Maykowskyj says.
Key Players
Owner: Newark Public Schools
Development Manager: New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation, Trenton
Project Management: PB/3DI, Newark
Contractor: Hunt Construction Group, Indianapolis
Architect: Johnson Jones Architects, Newark
Associate Architect: Gruzen Samton, New York
Mechanical-Electrical-Civil Engineer: Jacobs Engineering-Edwards and Kelcey, Morristown, N.J.
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