From B-Balls to Bedrooms
By K. Robert Wendel

It has the look of a Soho loft, but the feel of the new condominiums in Albuquerque High School's old gymnasium is strictly New Mexico.

advertisement

The 54 condominiums are part of larger project that is creating a rebirth in the once rundown area of Duke City. Albuquerque's Paradigm Development and Richardson and Richardson Construction completed the restoration of the school's old classroom building in February 2004, and a slew of new live/work units on Arno Street are adding critical mass to the area's redevelopment.

The two firms teamed up again, along with local architect Dekker /Perich /Sabatini, to renovate the 64,000-sq.-ft. gymnasium under Leadership in Environmental Engineering and Design guidelines.

The $6 million project finished in February with prices starting out in the $300,000 range.

"Quite a bit of the efforts in L.E.E.D. certification are in the materials and resources and that includes building reuse," said architect Ashley Burkholder of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini. "We are getting the bulk of our points in materials and resources, with a heavy component of indoor environmental quality."

Crews also recycled materials on the project and saved 75 percent of the waste from going into a landfill. More than 1 million lbs. were recycled.

"After all the whining (from reluctant contractors, at least initially), we actually saved some money by recycling," said Richardson and Richardson project manager Mark Carroll. "We used fewer dumpsters and we made some nice cash from salvage, so it made it worthwhile for everybody."

Contractors are also refurbishing and reusing as much of the original building as possible, including the old windows.

The condos sit inside the old gymnasium and feature their own structural system. Under the building codes, designers had to allow for 6.5-in. of movement. Trusses slide independently of the building as a protection against earthquakes.

"We couldn't tie the two buildings together because of seismic issues so we cut holes around all the steel columns," said Dale Heppler, a lead design technician at Albuquerque's Chavez Grieves Engineers, which designed the project's structural package. The holes allow for seismic movement.

Ironworkers were required to erect 90 tons of structural steel inside of a building with a new roof, creating some unique problems.

The original structure is pan- deck construction, and the joists in the original floors did not line up with the joists above or below. That became a problem for engineers who had to plot a course for each column starting in the basement (crawl space) to penetrate through two more existing floors - and avoid the existing pan joists.

Richardson & Richardson had to map the joist locations and provide this information to the structural engineers. The steel was set using only chain falls & Genie lifts because the floors would not support anything other than live loads, and the new roof prohibited the use of a crane.

"It was a complicated and tricky operation," said Hap Richardson, president of Richardson and Richardson Construction. "The engineers and ironworkers put a lot of time and effort dealing with these pan joists."

Moninger Steel Erectors Inc. of Albuquerque erected the steel frame.

The main gym area will see 20 new units in two levels and 10 units in the former cafeteria. Other units are tucked into the wrestling room, music room and girls gym.

In the gym, a 30-ft.- wide corridor runs down the center of the basketball court, flanked by condos. The gym's original wood bleachers are being retained, with split-level units flanking them.

The split level second- floor condo units also feature interior mezzanines with the original exposed steel trusses. The condos feature high ceilings with exposed ducting and brickwork.

"We are going to keep the bleachers intact, so the gym looks like it always did and gives you a pretty good feel for what this once was," said architect Joe
Boehning of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini. "We are going with the spirit of the area in rebuilding downtown and that's why we left the bleachers."

Designers employed a cooling tower to cool the condos along with high- efficiency heat pumps controlled individually from the units. Existing clerestory windows will be operable, allowing cross- ventilation. The windows also provide a large percentage of natural day lighting, another L.E.E.D. design component.

A continuous pump boiler provides hot water directly to the plumbing fixtures, which are all low flow. The continuous pump cuts down water wasted while waiting for the hot water to flow.

Sandia Plumbing and Heating did the plumbing and some mechanical work, and Metalcrafters Inc. did the duct work. Both firms are based in Albuquerque.