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NEWS
ARTICLES :: EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High Biscayne Bay Campus
North Miami, Florida - The new Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High Biscayne Bay Campus, designed to accommodate 1,600 students, includes core subject classrooms; agriscience, business and computer laboratories; a media center; a gymnasium; administrative areas; and a cafetorium (a combination cafeteria/auditorium) with an outdoor dining area.
Sited just northwest of the David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center and in close proximity to the existing athletic running track and football field, the new school was constructed on a 4.5-acre parcel that neighbors pristine wetlands. “The school’s unique design embraces the surrounding natural environment with its welcoming entry plaza and playful forms,” said Jonathan Kinsley, director of marketing for ARQUITECTONICA, the project’s architect.
Designing a 165,000-square-foot facility on an extremely tight site meant that the building had to go vertical, according to Dennis E. Caserta, senior project manager for the Office of School Facilities–Construction for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “Programs had to be stacked and organized in such a way to eliminate any wasted space in the building and on the site.”
FACTS & FIGURES
The Building of America Network Team Members
To that end, the school employs a “school within a school” concept, according to Kinsley. Four interconnected volumes, each highlighting various aspects of education and daily high school life, are represented in the campus. The first volume, representing the academic dimension, is a four-story building containing classrooms and labs. Adjacent to the classrooms is the administration and student services area in volume two. The third volume, consisting of the school’s gymnasium and locker rooms, highlights athletics. The fourth volume, containing the cafetorium, the state-of-the-art media center and meeting spaces, serves to accent students’ social life.
The classroom building was constructed of a structural steel frame with mat foundations. Floors are cast-in-place concrete slabs placed on structural metal decks. The exterior skin of the building is filled cell masonry/tie beam construction with a plaster skin. Among the unique elements to the project, according to Steve Williams, vice president, operations for Pavarini South East Construction Co., Inc., the project’s construction manager, are the randomly placed, multiple-size, fixed-pane windows in the upper levels of the classroom building.
Volume two, the administration and student services area, is also constructed with filled cell masonry and tie beams. The roof structure is bar joist and metal deck. In addition, the cafetorium and athletic areas are filled cell masonry and tie beam construction. According to Williams, a unique feature of the building is that the exterior facade of the low-rise areas features slanted walls and exposed ringlets that give a total contrast to the rectangular shape of the classroom building.
“The design breaks the composition into two primary expressions, each representing a different side of learning — the two aspects to education,” stated Kinsley. “Both are represented in the design, so the building is telling a story about education.” The rational aspects of knowledge and learning are represented by the white, rectangular portion of the building containing classrooms. The more intuitive aspects, which rely on creative expression, skill and teamwork, are suggested by the unique design of the front section where the public spaces are located, including the theater and the gym. “These endeavors are very much part of the curriculum and make students better, helping them to think out of the box and produce something original,” he added.
One innovative aspect of the project, according to Williams, was that the design and construction was managed almost like a design-build project. Pavarini functioned seamlessly with ARQUITECTONICA and made adjustments as the project progressed and as required to meet budget and schedule.
The greatest challenges encountered on this project, according to Williams, were the size of the property and the restraints of the physical attributes of the property. “Wetlands were located on the north and east side of the property. Also, a 90-inch outfall pipe from the adjacent water treatment plant was located in a 430-foot easement running along the west and south sides of the building,” she said. “These constraints locked in the available footprint area for the building.” In addition, the property had pockets of unsuitable soil that required modification to the building foundations during construction, which necessitated collaboration with the design team. Changes to the building’s footprint and structural foundations required changes in logistics and the complete project schedule in order to meet the completion dates originally planned.
“All teams from the architect and their consultants to the general contractor and their subs worked closely together to share ideas, provide suggestion[s] and offer solutions so that the project could continue without affecting the construction schedule,” said Caserta.
Completed in July 2009, the Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High Biscayne Bay Campus provides a new, restructured high school facility for students in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
— Stacey Nathanson
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