Best of 2005 Awards

Samuel Staples Elementary School

Project of the Year: Pre-K to 12

Construction on the $30.6 million Samuel Staples Elementary School in Easton, Conn., finished a month early despite a five-week delay at the project's start.

The Best of 2005 judges applauded the 120,000-sq.-ft. facility for capturing Easton's rural character while helping schoolchildren relate to the space, laid out to resemble a village for easy navigation.

"It's the coolest school I've seen in a long time," said one of the judges.

Another judge lauded its "thinking outside of the box in school design."

The project team, led by Turner Construction from its Milford, Conn., office and the S/L/A/M Collaborative of Glastonbury, Conn., got a late start largely because the town had to resolve a legal injunction filed by citizens pushing for greater disclosure of project costs and because of stiff competition for workers in the area.

The complex structure has multiple-pitched roof systems and 35-ft.-high interior spaces. The lobby, or "village square," connects to a "Main Street" corridor that separates the gym, media center, and cafeteria-auditorium from the school's classrooms, which are in red and tan barn-like structures at the rear of the facility.

Each grade has its own "neighborhood," with subtle changes in form, color, and materials in the exterior design of each space. The interior has custom-cut and colored ceramic and porcelain tile imported from Italy, which demanded careful procurement and long delivery lead times.

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The roof has ethylene propylene diene monomer, shingles, expansion joints, curved cornice metal coping, and barn-like structures designed in part by Watsky Associates, a consultant in Valhalla, N.Y.

The judges also lauded the sitework.

"One of the difficult things was the watershed work involved," one judge said.

To avoid soil erosion and inorganic contamination of a stream that runs behind the 43-acre parcel and empties into Easton's drinking-water reservoir, Dalling Construction of Stratford, Conn., and the team stabilized five acres of land at a time. It also directed stormwater runoff to retention ponds and removed or blocked arms of an underground farm drainage system to keep silt out of the reservoir.

In the effort, the team recycled 20,000 cu. yd. of soil fill to build two extra sports fields, making five overall. The team also installed major utilities, securing high-voltage power by planting new poles and stringing cable for more than 1 mi.

Sixteen months after breaking ground in April 2004, the team finished, a month early and under budget. It didn't use a third of the financial contingency and spent no funds on overtime. There were no major workplace injuries, and during the last six months, there were none at all.

"That's an unbelievable project," one judge said.

Key Players

Owner: Easton Board of Education; Town of Easton

Architect: S/L/A/M Collaborative

General Contractor: Turner Construction

Engineering: Harry J. Shepard & Associates; Kevin White Engineering; Macchi Engineers; Consulting Engineering Services

Excavation-Site: Dalling Construction

Electrical: Electrical Energy Systems

Concrete: Epifano Builders

Structural Steel: Shepard Steel

HVAC-Plumbing: Select Energy