Schools awarded 'Best Projects'
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 13, 2016 9:57 AM
The new Grantham and Spring Creek middle schools have received Engineering News-Record's annual Southeast Best Projects Award in the K-12 education category.
Annually general contractors/construction managers submit projects in various categories such as health care, higher education, multi-family, retail and K-12, said Ken Gerrard, vice president for T.A. Loving Construction Co. that along Metcon Inc. was contractor at-risk for the two schools.
ENR's annual Best Projects award program is dedicated to honoring the best construction projects and the companies that designed and built them in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
"The award is presented to the general contractor," Gerrard said. "We will be sharing the award with the board of education along with the board of county commissioners. It is considered a big honor to be recognized by our peers and ENR to receive an award in a category that you submitted.
"Another important aspect of this award is that our community is recognized throughout the southeast and other parts of the country. These schools were selected primarily because of the type of projects. These two positive energy schools are two of the only three in the state currently in operation. The innovative ways that the schools were constructed and the energy savings are important to our industry and the overall operating cost for the schools systems and counties."
The award is also a testament to the relationship between Metcon/ T.A. Loving and the Wayne County Board of Education and county commissioners, he said.
SFL+a Architects was the lead design firm for the schools. Also involved inn the projects were Crawford Design Co., civil engineer; LHC Structural Engineers PC, structural engineer; and Optima Engineering, mechanical, electrical, plumping engineer.
The award ensures everyone that the project ran smooth and was delivered to the owner on time and on budget, Gerrard said.
Outgoing Wayne County Commission Chairman Joe Daughtery said he has seen a copy of the press release announcing the award, but otherwise was not that familiar with it.
"And I read the article they were acknowledging that these two schools did have such high energy, green energy facility," he said. "I am not familiar with the organization that is awarding that. But all in all it really is a great honor. One of the reasons that we in fact agreed to put in the extra cost of building these schools totally self-sufficient for energy was not only the cost savings going forward but additionally getting recognition for Wayne County and eastern North Carolina that we did in fact have the foresight to invest in these type of facilities.
"I think sometimes that eastern North Carolina gets a bum rap of thinking that we are not forward thinking individuals. But we also wanted people in the world to know that we are very forward thinking in our investments in schools and infrastructure."
Accord to the ENR website, with a low energy use intensity rating of 15, the two schools are the most energy efficient in the U.S.
Both Spring Creek and Grantham serve 650 students each, with capacity for 800.
The two schools feature rooftop solar arrays that produce roughly 40 percent more power than the schools consume, geothermal heating and cooling systems, high-efficiency LED lighting and dynamic air cleaners that enable the use of smaller HVAC units.
According to the website, independent juries of industry leaders in design and construction from each of ENR's 10 regional editions judge the projects using five criteria, including safety, innovation and teamwork.
The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony later in the year and will be featured in the regional editions of ENR.
Projects deemed best in category will automatically compete in the Best of the Best Projects 2016, a national juried competition appearing in ENR.