Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years, during which time vandals and drive-by shooters destroyed most of the windows, and the 60,000-sf building became a haven for drug users and the homeless. The less said about the rodent and bird infestations, the better.
After neighbors demanded that Durham Public Schools take proper responsibility for its property, the district partnered with the city, the county, and Duke Healthcare to rework the former school into a multiuse community center. Rehabbed for a scant $16.68 million by the Building Team of Davis Kane Architects, Skanska (CM at risk), Heery International (program manager), En-Tech (MEP engineer), and Stroud, Pence and Associates (structural engineer), the facility reopened in July. Holton offers the community sorely needed services, including career and technical education classes, a recreation and wellness center, an auditorium, childcare and after-school programs, and a health clinic operated by Duke Healthcare.
Also helping to revitalize the community was Skanska’s decision to hire and train small-firm subcontractors, several of whom live in the neighborhood. The Building Team also achieved 46.5% minority participation on the project.
“We have a lot of empty buildings like this in our communities, said Reconstruction Awards judge Darlene Ebel, Director of Facility Information Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “They had a small budget and they did a lot of good with the money.” BD+C
PROJECT SUMMARY
Building Team
Submitting firm: Heery International (program manager)
Owner/developer: Durham Public Schools
Architect: Davis Kane Architects
CM at risk: Skanska USA Building Inc.
MEP engineer: En-tech Engineering
Structural engineer: Stroud, Pence and Associates Ltd.
General Information
Size: 60,000 gsf
Construction cost: $16.68 million
Construction time: August 2009 to July 2010
Delivery method: CM at risk
Related Stories
Transit Facilities | Feb 12, 2015
Gensler proposes network of cycle highways in London’s unused underground
Unused tube lines would host pedestrian paths, cycle routes, cultural spaces, and retail outlets.
Healthcare Facilities | Feb 11, 2015
Primer: Using 'parallel estimating' to pinpoint costs on healthcare construction projects
As pressure increases to understand capital cost prior to the first spade touching dirt, more healthcare owners are turning to advanced estimating processes, like parallel estimating, to improve understanding of exposure, writes CBRE Healthcare's Andrew Sumner.
Transportation & Parking Facilities | Feb 11, 2015
11 of the nation’s best ‘Complete Streets’ policies of 2014
Austin, Texas, and Troy, N.Y., are among the cities with the strongest safe streets policies, according to a new report.
Sponsored | Roofing | Feb 11, 2015
New school blends with local architecture using Petersen metal roof
Perkins Eastman in Stamford, Conn., designed the school to emphasize and integrate the International Baccalaureate curriculum throughout.
Mixed-Use | Feb 11, 2015
Developer plans to turn Eero Saarinen's Bell Labs HQ into New Urbanist town center
Designed by Eero Saarinen in the late 1950s, the two-million-sf, steel-and-glass building was one of the best-funded and successful corporate research laboratories in the world.
Architects | Feb 11, 2015
Shortlist for 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award announced
Copenhagen, Berlin, and Rotterdam are the cities where most of the shortlisted works have been built.
BIM and Information Technology | Feb 10, 2015
Google's 3D scanning camera leaves the lab
Google is said to be partnering with LG to create a version of the technology for public release sometime this year.
Steel Buildings | Feb 10, 2015
Korean researchers discover 'super steel'
The new alloy makes steel as strong as titanium.
Architects | Feb 9, 2015
The generalist architect vs. the specialist architect
The corporate world today quite often insists on hiring specialists, but the generalists have an intrinsic quality to adapt to new horizons or even cultural shifts in the market, writes SRG Partnership's Gary Harris.
Museums | Feb 9, 2015
Herzog & de Meuron's M+ museum begins construction in Hong Kong
When completed, M+ will be one of the first buildings in the Foster + Partners-planned West Kowloon Cultural District.