High School Renovations Earn High Marks

...detailed site logistics plans, project phasing, security requirements, a quality program and a detailed safety plan. Identification checks, construction partitions, and scheduling deliveries around bus drop-off and pick-up times were part of the plans.

Photo: Gilbane Building Co.

At Joliet Central High, the stone exterior of the new fieldhouse matched the existing buildings perfectly.

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To provide a seamless transition from the old systems to the new ones, Gilbane divided the building in half. The north half systems’ transition occurred in summer and fall 2008; the south portion’s transition of systems occurred throughout spring and summer 2009.

The steam and radiator systems had to remain live so that services could continue to the south portion during the winter of 2008 and spring of 2009. The existing fire alarm system was also kept active for the south half of the building while the north half was on the new system.

Systems that needed to be shut down to be worked on were turned off during the building’s non-working hours. Electrical services shut-down was done during summer breaks; major equipment feed tie-in was completed over weekends and district breaks.

Field Houses

From 1993 until a few years ago, both Joliet Central and Joliet West high schools shared one athletic team. The district’s subsequent decision to allow each school have its own athletic team drove the need for more gym space. “We had to add a fieldhouse to each school and with the increase in our population, there was a need for more physical education space,” Pagliaro says.

Design efforts were made to make the field houses blend with the existing structures’ architecture. “At Joliet Central, we used stone, and at Joliet West, we used brick,” says Kevin Havens, director of design for Wight & Co.

The efforts paid off. According to Hayes, the new field house for Joliet Central matched the design of the Gothic high school so well that some people asked the administration where they’d been storing the stone all these years.