With the help of West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Royal Concrete Concepts (RCC), Palm Beach County School District relocated modular concrete classrooms to
With the help of West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Royal Concrete Concepts (RCC), Palm Beach County School District relocated modular concrete classrooms to save money and minimize environmental impact. Accordingly, RCC concrete units at Palm Beach Gardens High School were transported and reassembled as a one-story addition to Jupiter Middle School of Technology. Work on the project required less than two months, providing 16 classrooms ready for occupancy before the school year’s mid-August start date.
Creating 18,000 sq. ft. of enclosed classrooms entailed erection also of an electrical and custodial room, a group restroom, and walkway/entry units at the ends of the corridors. Plans call for enclosing the corridors with RCC insulated panels and addition of architectural panels and elements to create a permanent wing. The entire interior will be repainted with a Sto Fine finish. Exterior upgrades include architectural enhancements, a new roof, and a stucco finish.
Reusing the Royal Concrete classrooms for this addition stands to save us probably more than 50 percent compared to building a new classroom addition, asserts Joe Sanches, chief of facilities management for Palm Beach County schools. The school district’s strategy of buying relocatable precast classrooms, rather than wooden portables, was prompted by modular concrete buildings’ hurricane resistance and 100-plus-year life span. As student populations shift to other areas of the county, facilities can be relocated to accommodate them.
We are essentially recycling the entire building. Taxpayers, school board members, and facilities staff are getting a huge return on their initial investment by utilizing these classroom several times over in adapting to demographic shifts, adds Royal Concrete Vice President John Albert.
Moreover, the Jupiter school project’s ÎgreenÌ benefits align with sustainability initiatives of the Palm Beach County School District which boasts 35-plus Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professionals (LEED APs), thereby ranking among top districts nationwide in construction teams holding the designation. Though Jupiter Middle School is not a LEED project, school district officials will calculate the points toward possible future certification and to demonstrate the value in recycling RCC’s building system.