Something Old, Something New

Kirtland School Blends Renovation and Ground-Up Construction

Although the amount of private renovation work in the U.S. has declined with the economy, some projects, including government jobs, keep moving forward.

By Neal Singer

A job requiring renovations as well as teardowns and new construction at Kirtland Middle School in northwestern New Mexico presented a new class of problems for Albuquerque-based Studio Southwest Architects Inc., Tulsa-based general contractor Flintco Inc. and a variety of subcontractors.

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Two classroom buildings built more than 40 years ago were torn down. A 48,000-sq-ft, steel-frame two-story classroom building with few frills was erected along with a one-story administration building. Three buildings were renovated. Meanwhile, approximately 550 pupils attended daily classes.

A tight $17.6 million budget from the Central Consolidated School District No. 22 and the state Public School Facilities Authority forced imaginative compromises by project architect Kim Hooker.

“We took down about one-third of the school,” Hooker says. “Those buildings were clean and sparkling. The community had provided a high level of maintenance. But plumbing and sewer lines were failing. There had been periods of asbestos removal, but there was still asbestos. And there were no sprinklers for fire control.”

Hooker says that under the state funding formula, if the cost to restore a building exceeds 65% of its estimated value, then new construction is authorized. On this basis, “50% of the remaining buildings were renovated and 50% are new,” she adds.

A 25,000-sq-ft gym, 15,000-sq-ft classroom building built in the 1980s and a 6,000-sq-ft cafeteria were renovated.

The cafeteria, built in 1958, was “spectacular and valued by members of the community who themselves had gone to school there,” Hooker says.

The building is supported by wood and glue-laminated beams curved into a barrel vault shape. The base of some beams had suffered water damage. Previous protective attempts to wrap them in stucco hadn’t helped. The current renovation added steel jackets to the beam bases, on a foundation of new cement.

Flintco project superintendent Steve Hughes says that health issues created by the ongoing construction were minimal. “The ceiling insulation, for example, is all encapsulated,” he says.

But because his teams were sometimes working 10 ft from classrooms, Hughes says “if we got more than one complaint from a teacher about a problem, we moved that work to the night shift.”

Achieving cooperation from students and teachers in such close quarters took effort. “It hasn’t been totally smooth,” Hooker says. “There has been a huge level of compromise with teachers. But the attitude of the school community has been, ‘It’s not easy, but we’ll make it work.’”

The renovation preserved a 6,000-sq-ft cafeteria. Originally built in 1958, it features spectacular wood and glue-laminated beams, curved into a barrel vault shape. ( Photo courtesy Flintco, Inc.)

Stunning visuals were not the project’s selling point. Among obvious simple benefits were design improvements that provided better visibility at student dropoff points from buses and cars. “If everybody’s visible, people are safe,” Hooker says.

Improvements included better building insulation, lighting and sun protection; new handicap access; and a student courtyard that included amenities such as basketball hoops and climbing rocks.

More technically challenging were the replacement of existing fire alarm systems. “We were building a new administration area,” says David Steward of Farmington-based Rocky Mountain Consulting Engineers Inc. “But we couldn’t take the old alarm systems out of the old building as the new one was being put in.”

That created difficulties for contractors, he says.

“They had to take one section, and only that section, off the system,” Steward adds. “Then the new system section had to be interlocked with the intercom to get in touch with teachers. So we had two fire alarm systems operating at the same time.”

The arrangement needed special permission from local fire marshals, he says.

“In traditional construction, we go in and tear something down and don’t worry about it,” Steward says. “Here, the contractor had to worry about existing wiring, and it’s rare we have a good set of as-built drawings.”

Crews tore down outdated space to erect a new two-story classroom building, but they also renovated three existing structures.

Happily, the school drawings were 90-95% accurate, the contractors were “great to work with” and students were safe, he says. But because school could not be conducted without an operative fire alarm system and that system was temporarily dual, Steward says, “We had a few times when guys came in and cut wires, not knowing what they were doing. Then the fire trucks showed up.”

The local environment provided still more serious challenges. “The water level in springtime is only 8 ft below ground level,” says Mark Harger of Albuquerque-based Superior Mechanical Contractors Inc. “We started in fall ‘07. By spring ‘08, our ditches were full of more water than anyone expected. We had to run pumps 24/7.”

He says that it was “hurry up and wait” for installation of water, sewage, utilities and fire lines. “We dug our stuff during the summer.”

It was such a bitterly cold winter that the masons couldn’t work, despite tenting the second floor of the new structure, Harger says.

Albuquerque-based Southwest Glass and Glazing Inc. was one of those that stopped work through the winter because of weather, says Aaron Armijo, the firm’s project manager.

“The renovation was tough on workers,” he says. “We had to remove glass not up to code and put tempered glass and new operable windows in old frames.” Because frame dimensions had changed over decades, “we had to measure every window,” he says. The company installed nearly 7,000 sq ft of glass.

“People do showy buildings all day long and that’s what wins awards,” Hooker says. “But we built this school nickel by nickel, thinking of functional needs. The hardest but greenest thing you can do is to use as few new materials and haul as few old ones as possible.

“And we think it’s a good-looking school.”

Key Players

Owner: Central Consolidated School District No. 22
Funding: Public School Facilities Authority
Architect: Studio Southwest Architects
General Contractor: Flintco Inc.
Engineers: Souder Miller & Associates; Rocky Mountain Consulting Engineers; CCI Engineering
Subcontractors: Superior Mechanical Contractors; Southwest Glass & Glazing; Star Masonry; The Noel Company; San Juan Drywall; Five G's Steel Erectors

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