Indianapolis Public Schools
Design Clash Avoided on Redo of Arsenal School
by Jeffrey Steele

Workers renovating two buildings at Arsenal Technical High School, a magnet high school in Indianapolis on a site that traces its history to the Civil War, soon learned some project elements were more difficult than others.

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A case in point was the need to add modern mechanical and electrical systems in ancient return airshafts between corridor and classroom walls.

The job wasn't easy. Penetrations had to be created in near-century-old brick interior walls that were up to 2 ft. thick, said Randy Waren, project manager for Shiel Sexton Co. Inc./Corbitt & Sons Co. Inc. Joint Venture, the Indianapolis-based construction manager on the project.

"We used core drilling at night," Waren added. "We had about six months there where we had a core driller on site at night."

The need to carve through thick walls is but one of a number of obstacles that has arisen in the $1.6 million phase one renovation of Arsenal Tech. The project began in January 2004 and should be completed by February 2006.

Phase one involves the renovation of Treadwell Hall and Stuart Hall, two of 16 buildings on the 80-acre campus just east of downtown Indianapolis. In also includes the addition of a chilled water system to another building, Lone Hall.

When additional funding is available, the remaining Arsenal Tech structures, some dating to the 1860s, will undergo renovation. The total project is expected to take 10 years and cost $41.4 million, said Debra Kunce, program manager with Indianapolis-based Schmidt Associates Inc., an architecture firm serving as program manager on the project. All buildings are of brick masonry construction, a style reflecting the campus's original use as a Civil War Union Army arsenal.

Structures dating to the Civil War era still in use at Arsenal Tech include those used for offices, culinary training, ROTC training and the original guardhouse, Kunce said.

Upgrading 1910s-era Buildings

At Treadwell and Stuart Halls, which both date from approximately 1912, workers are replacing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and adding air conditioning.

The restoration will add 11 science laboratories, lighting and tuckpointing, Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility and such security features as a card access system and additional cameras. Also included is renovation of the washrooms.

The chiller system is being incorporated in converted space within Lone Hall, said William Cotterman, project manager with Indianapolis-based Gibraltar Design Inc., the architect of record on the project and a firm well known for historic preservation work.

In an effort to avoid spoiling the picturesque setting of a campus on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, Cotterman ensured chillers wouldn't be placed adjacent to each renovated building.

The decision to add chillers at Lone Hall was made easier because chilled-water piping had been installed in tunnels beneath the campus about a decade before, in anticipation of a chilled-water system eventually being built.

"We carried forward that concept and converted space in Lone Hall to accommodate the chiller for this project and for future air-conditioning projects for the other campus buildings," Cotterman said.

"By doing that, we kept large chillers from being placed next to the buildings, which would have required chain-link fencing around them in a fairly unsympathetic [addition] to the rest of the historic campus."

This move was part of the overall challenge of "gently incorporating" modern, functional educational requirements within the context of historic buildings, Cotterman said. "Part of being an historic architect is incorporating those systems as gently as possible," he added.

Ensuring Fire Safety

That gentility was also a priority when it was time to examine Treadwell Hall's fire safety features. Indianapolis Public Schools wanted to eliminate the fire escapes hanging from the building's exterior, deeming them more a safety hazard than a safety feature.

Administrators feared students would climb on the escapes, fall and be injured, Cotterman said.

Gibraltar Design had to examine the entire building and determine changes that would allow removal of the fire escape while ensuring the building continued to meet modern building codes. The solution was to add a sprinkler system and partially enclose the hall's open stairs at the third floor level.

"Doing that allowed us to accumulate enough points under the Indiana Rehab Code to remove the exterior fire escapes," Cotterman added.
Bathrooms in the buildings represent another design issue. Both buildings situated men's bathrooms on one end of long corridors and women's on the other end.

"It doesn't help in getting students to class on time," Cotterman said. "We were able to split the existing bathrooms into two sets - men's and women's - and meet all ADA requirements on both ends."

Constructing Around Class Time

One of the biggest obstacles the construction team has confronted is the need to keep school in session while work proceeds.

There was no simple way to section off these buildings to allow classes and construction to take place simultaneously, Kunce said.

As a result, contractors work from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. during the school year.

During summers and weeklong nonsummer vacation periods, contractors work in two shifts, the first from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and the second from 3 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

"Crews work in the same halls the students work in during the day, but before leaving clean up so the students can use it the next morning," Kunce said of the schedule during the academic year. "The only challenge is that because we have several union contractors on this job, we have to stay consistent, [working] every night of the week or every day of the week."

Careful scheduling has helped minimize disruptions to the school.

"In Treadwell Hall, we put six air handlers in the attic before taking the classrooms out of service," Waren said. "So we're getting a portion of that HVAC done while they're still having class in the classrooms, as opposed to taking the classroom out of service and getting all the HVAC done at one time."

Abatement has proven another hurdle for contractors. Limited abatement of 9- by 9-in. asbestos floor tiles was necessary, but the bigger problem was asbestos in the roof decks and chases, Kunce said.

The two means of abating asbestos are eliminating or encapsulating it.

In this instance, the more workable option was the latter. In a three-month project before construction began, asbestos was encapsulated using a spray-on material. Because the highest point in the roofline is 25 ft. above the attic floor, considerable high work was required, Kunce said.

But the abatement wasn't complete. After the team cut a hole through the roof for a mechanical penetration, asbestos had to be encapsulated again.

"We very quickly mobilized an on-call asbestos abatement contractor to contain the attic and immediately begin encapsulating," Kunce added.