Casa Gigante

Big School Opens New Vistas for Casa Grande Students

By Scott Blair

The biggie-sized Vista Grande High School, currently under construction in Casa Grande, will create enough space for 2,200 students. The $59.7 million project includes four main buildings and an array of athletic fields on a 60-acre site.

With a scope making the word “grande” an understatement, the new $59.7 million Vista Grande High School under construction in Casa Grande is a mammoth undertaking.

60-acres of former farmland will contain the four main educational buildings accompanied by two auxiliary structures, athletic fields and parking areas.

Photo courtesy Sundt

Tempe-based construction-manager at-risk Sundt Construction broke ground on the 260,000-sq-ft school on Dec. 1st, 2007.

The project is comprised of four main components: academic, careers and technology, performing arts and gym/athletics. “When we were first programming the facility and looking at how these components fit together, it became clear that they could be arranged around a central courtyard theme,” says Keith Long, AIA, project manager with the Phoenix office of architect NTD Architecture.

The largest structure, the 137,808-sq-ft Building One, will house a two-story academic wing where the bulk of classrooms and labs will be.

A joint-use library is included, to be used by both high school students and the public. Initially the school was going to have its own media center and library, but the area tripled in size after it was decided to use it as a public library as well. The expanded library added around $4 million to the project cost, of which the city is paying half, far cheaper than if they had built a library on their own.

“The library has its own front door entry off the visitor parking area so the public can enter without having to go through the entire school, and students can go from the academic building to the library without having to go around to the public entry,” Long says. A card access system will keep the general public from entering the academic areas from the library.

The library features a large, high-volume open space topped with a gable roof and exposed steel trusses while arched windows in front give patrons views to nearby mountains.

Building Two is a 34,880-sq-ft, single-story career and technology building. It will house the school’s culinary arts and medical technology programs, along with media arts such as ceramics and painting. The school’s central plant will also occupy the south end of this building.

At 39,364 sq ft, the third structure will house a performing arts auditorium, and will also have the school’s kitchen and student dining area.

The fourth building has a gymnasium, auxiliary gym and locker rooms.

The buildings sit on slab-on-grade foundations, and are structurally supported by steel joists and metal decks. The buildings will be clad with CMU, some of which will be split-faced.

“The Spanish Colonial architectural style is one that is indigenous to the area,” Long says. The style includes ample arches, tower elements, covered colonnades, gable roofs and a clay tile roofing system.

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“It mimics part of the historical context of Casa Grande but also has a modern flair to it,” he adds.

Formerly occupied by farmland, two-thirds of the 60-acre site will become an array of athletic fields and parking areas.

“The unique thing about the site is that all the ball fields will be lit,” says Ed Mullins, project manager with Sundt. This includes a football field, two baseball fields for varsity and junior varsity and two softball fields.

The project also includes fields for both the physical education department and for band practice. “In the past, both athletics and band would compete for time on the field, so we actually have made up the retention area on the east side of the building and striped it for a lit band practice area,” Mullins says.

“We value-engineered all of the sports lighting to go with a Musco lighting system, which helped their budget quite a bit,” says Mark Miner, project manager with Phoenix-based electrical contractor Cannon & Wendt Electric Co. “The Musco system uses less fixtures and lamps, actually has a longer lifespan for their lamps and still gives the school their minimums on candle power.”

The team utilized building information modeling on the project and performed much of the value engineering early on during design.

Image courtesy NTD

The central courtyard around which the buildings are arranged will feature a commons area with covered seating areas. “It can be used as a lobby and gathering space for the gymnasium and performing arts auditorium,” Long says. “It is secured from the rest of the campus so that the people who are in the outdoor seating area are not able to circulate to the other parts of the campus.”

The team used building information modeling on the project, most notably with the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. “We brought in Cannon & Wendt, Schuff Steel and Midstate Mechanical right at the beginning and truly used them through the whole design,” Mullins says. “We actually gave each of them their own cm-at-risk contract, which is a little different than normal. We wanted their buy-in on the project, and we wanted to do all the value engineering up front during design, while typically you do that afterwards.”

For example, Cannon & Wendt value-engineered lighting, special systems, data, communications, security cameras and an auditorium sound system to bring them into budget, adding up to an estimated $1.8 million in savings. “In this day and age of budget constraints, it helped give the District a complete project, within budget and with the minimum bells and whistles that they required,” Miner says.

Sundt uses Lean Construction principals on many of their projects, including this one.

“We have two meetings a week where we pull each subcontractor’s foremen together to discuss their weekly work plans,” says Mike Jackson, Sundt’s lead superintendent on the job. “It helps the subs plan ahead instead of reacting to the situation. They are also accountable and we can measure their results each week.”

The plans help Sundt with managing the project, but they also help other subs with their own work plans and manpower levels for the coming week.

“The key thing is we want work plans that are measurable and honest,” Mullins says. “It’s really an accountability tool, not only to us as a general contractor but to their counterparts in the field.”

“It puts the subcontractors in the driver’s seat for their own destiny,” Miner says. “It also gives subcontractors an opportunity to push the job.”

Key Players:

Owner: Casa Grande Union High School District
Architect: NTD Architecture
CM at Risk: Sundt Construction
Engineers: Hubbard Engineering; L.S.W. Engineers; Paragon Structural Design
Landscape: McConaghie Associates
Electrical: Cannon & Wendt Electric Co.
Mechanical/Plumbing: Midstate Mechanical
Steel: Schuff Steel
Masonry: MAG Construction

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