Zionsville West Middle School
Indiana School Nearly Duplicates Twin

by Steve Kaelble

Construction companies and architects don't often get the opportunity for a do-over, but that's happening in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville where a middle school under construction is similar to one that opened there a few years ago.

advertisement

For the Zionsville West Middle School project, J.C. Ripberger Construction Corp. of Zionsville is the general contractor, and the architect is the Indianapolis office of Celina, Ohio-based Fanning Howey Associates Inc. The two firms also worked together for Zionsville Community School Corp. to design and build Zionsville Middle School, which opened in fall 2001.

J.C. Ripberger's Rich Montague called the new middle school identical to the first one.

"We already built this project once before," he added.

But there are differences, and the two schools were designed to be at least fraternal twins.

"They're as equal as possible, but improvements were made where needed," said project manager Allen Cradler of Fanning Howey. The changes included additional space for music instruction and locker rooms as well as a more traditional red brick color for the exterior of the newer school.

Schools in a School

The $34.6 million Zionsville West Middle School project is being built to the west of the growing community known locally for its quaint, upscale shops and historic village architecture. It's scheduled to open in August 2007.

The school is designed to house up to 1,500 pupils in grades 5 through 8, with the facility split into two "schools-within-a-school" to separate the lower two grades from the upper two, according to Bob Bostwick, project administrator and principal of the interim Zionsville West in a building to become an elementary school on an adjacent piece of property.

The building won't be anywhere near full when it first opens, but the fast-growing district needed more middle-school space and is planning ahead. "The present Zionsville Middle School is very near capacity," Bostwick said, adding that it amounts to about 1,500 pupils.

Zionsville West, set on a 70-acre site, will be two stories and total 264,000 sq. ft. Each of the two academic wings - the side for fifth- and sixth-graders and the mirror image for seventh- and eighth-graders - will include 32 classrooms, computer and technology rooms and restrooms, Cradler said.

"It will give a smaller-school feel to what otherwise would be a large school," Bostwick added.

Centralized features shared by both sections will include administrative offices, second-floor media center, large-group instruction lab, special-education facilities and rooms for so-called "specials" classes such as art and music. A commons area, which provides prefunction and "surge" space for after-school programs, is to connect the academic wings with a multipurpose room referred to as the "auditeria," a cafeteria outfitted with a stage at one end, and two gyms.

"The general style is traditional, which fits with the styles in Zionsville," Cradler said.

"We feel it's important as a school corporation to make sure our schools blend architecturally with what we feel is the flavor of the community," Bostwick said. In the case of the new middle school, the exterior is all masonry, featuring a more traditional schoolhouse-red brick instead of the lighter-colored masonry cladding the earlier middle school.

Durability Sought

Behind the brick is a mostly steel-framed structure, with a number of load-bearing masonry walls as well. Because it's a school, interior walls are to be mostly masonry, with a combination of painted concrete block and ground-face masonry, Cradler said.

"Masonry interiors are more durable from an abuse statement," he said.

The floors also are designed to withstand the abuse of hundreds of middle-school feet. The areas with the heaviest traffic will feature terrazzo flooring, while classrooms and less-busy common areas will be sound dampened with carpeting.
Students and teachers will benefit from plenty of natural light.

"There are a lot of windows in each classroom, and there are some large glass areas at the entry and common areas," Cradler said. Classroom windows can be opened for fresh air when weather permits.

The entire building will be served by a variable-air-volume heating and air-conditioning system. All temperature control will be via computer and will be network-based, but teachers will still be allowed limited control over the temperature in their rooms. The lighting systems will offer further energy efficiency, with motion detectors that shut off lights when there is no activity.

Fanning Howey also handled the site design. Included are baseball, softball and football fields along with tennis courts. As at the other middle school in Zionsville, there will be an outdoor classroom surrounding a detention pond.

The detention pond will provide an outdoor classroom for students as if it were a natural pond. "There's a park-type shelter and boardwalks around the detention pond," Cradler added.

A Late Start

Construction of Zionsville West Middle School was to begin in April but got a late start because the required permits and easements had not yet been granted.

"It was bid in March, but it was July before we got the actual building permits to proceed," Montague said. "The delays pushed us closer to winter, but we've made up for it by working some overtime and working some longer days."

Even though the building's all-above-grade design helped prevent any soil issues, "there was still a lot of dirt to move, tens of thousands of cubic yards, because it was just an old farm field," Montague added. That meant extra efforts to clean area roads and keep dust onsite as much as possible. "Being in the middle of an existing residential area, people are a lot more sensitive."

J.C. Ripberger has also had to deal with the same market- and hurricane-related materials supply problems that have been plaguing all contractors.

"There has continued to be a concern with steel prices and oil prices during the construction," Montague said.

The company compensated by acquiring some materials earlier than it otherwise would have in order to maximize cost savings.

"There have been several increases in steel during the project," Montague added.

"The only way to lock in the price was that we had to get the material."

Click here for next K-12 Construction Feature >>