New Vernon Secondary School a hit with students, teachers, and school district personnel

By Stuart Kamstra, Capital Projects Supervisor, School District No. 22

School District No. 22 had waited patiently for the replacement Vernon Secondary School (VSS) project to have the funding approved by the Ministry. Over 12 years of work into feasibility studies, budgets, and design concepts finally paid off and the LEED Gold project moved to the construction phase in late 2010. It was well worth the wait. The new school – the largest in the district – the “Pride on the Hill” as displayed on the school’s exterior sign, has been described as the flagship of the district.

Our district maintenance manager was a key performer who ensured that our district standards were met and matched our strategic and operational plans. Our district standards were created from many years of experience operating our school facilities, and take into consideration our labour force skill-set, methods of construction, maintenancefriendly products, flexibility, and costeffectiveness. Standards for the project were set initially at the design stage, and as construction progressed we had to reinforce these practices as they were not fully embraced at times. Keeping all parties focused on the big picture of longterm maintenance and meeting our district standards was a big challenge that we had to meet on the project.

The project scope included construction of a brand-new replacement secondary school on the existing school property adjacent to the current school, which remained active until the new school was ready to be occupied. Demolition of the original school was included in the contract works; it was completed after the new school was occupied and before the teachers’ parking, geothermal field and play fields could be finished.

The new Vernon Secondary is a threestorey, 10,358-square-metre school that

Early construction photo of the new facility, taken at the same angle as the photo of the completed school.

has been designed to LEED Gold standards. It includes 19 classrooms, six science rooms, two art rooms, an auto shop and two wood shops, a drama theatre, teaching cafeteria, foods and textiles rooms, weight room and gymnasium, library, administration offices, and a multipurpose space – plus a 4,564-squaremetre basement. It will have two full-size sports fields, outside basketball courts, a second upper field, a bus loop, and parking for students, visitors and teachers.

Pre-construction excavation was chosen on this project for a few reasons. The initial investigation and test pits that were taken of the soils beneath the proposed building footprint indicated that there was an active zone of clay that would have to be removed, and aerial photos of the site showed a number of gullies that ran through the property before the site was filled in, when the initial school was built. The work involved removing the active clay zone and replacing this area with structurally suitable material.

The inactive clay was located up to 17 feet deep. Removal of the clay was able to be completed under the direction of the geotechnical and civil engineers as the main building construction drawings were being completed and put out to tender. This put the project three months ahead of schedule. The over-excavation reduced the risk of extending the contract duration and accumulating additional costs to the project if this scope was completed with the general contractor. The decision also was beneficial as the project took advantage of cost-savings by tendering the earthworks separately, which gave the winning contractor an opportunity to combine an existing project with the site preparation.

The project structure is composed of a number of building materials. The foundation and basement walls are castin-place concrete and the basement floor is slab on grade. The main threestorey structure and the gymnasium are constructed of steel columns and steel beams and the main level floor is suspended concrete slabs. The second and third floor levels of the building are built with steel joists supporting a Q deck and poured concrete floor assembly. The walls are mostly built with steel-stud construction but the shops and arts wing is made of structural masonry block. The roof structure in the shops and arts areas are Glulam beams in place of the open-web steel joists that are in place for all other areas. The entire facility is constructed with metal roof decking and

North elevation of new Vernon Secondary School.

a two-ply membrane roofing assembly.

The exterior is finished with painted masonry block veneer at the lower levels, and full height in some areas, but much of the building’s upper areas have galvanized corrugated metal panels applied as the finish. The multipurpose common space and the library each feature full-height glass curtainwalls that act as both architectural features and thermal barriers for the school.

The building envelope is sealed with spray insulation for thermal resistance; the air barrier works in conjunction with the masonry and metal panel finishes. The exterior windows are double-sealed, argon-filled units, with low-E glass properties that reduce energy transfer by reflecting and absorbing light and heat energy. The roof is a two-ply membrane roofing system over the roof insulation, recovery board, and metal roof decking and joists. The roof is white and has high solar reflectivity properties to reduce the heat island effect.

The mechanical system is designed based on the horizontal geothermal system, which extracts energy from the earth beneath the sports fields. The main heating and cooling is provided through heat pumps that take fresh air from outside and pass it through the

Drama theatre.

Heat pump bank. Boiler system. owner: School District No. 22 (Vernon)

arcHiTecT: MQN ARCHITECTS

MecHanicaL engineer: Poole & Associates Ltd.

eLecTricaL engineer: Falcon Engineering Ltd.

sTrucTuraL engineer: R&A Engineering Ltd.

civiL engineer: CTQ Consultants Ltd.

geoTecHnicaL engineer: Calibre Engineering Ltd.

pHase 1 civiL conTracTor: Okanagan Excavating Ltd.

generaL conTracTor: Yellowridge Construction Ltd.

heat pumps before distributing air into the rooms. The geothermal energy is absorbed in the heat pump coils and is used to either heat or cool the air as it is distributed. The heating and cooling system is supported by gas boilers, air handling units, a heat recovery unit, and a cooling tower.

The demolition and hazardous abatement component was a high risk for additional unknown costs; a contingency had been set aside with a value based on experience from Coldstream and JL Crowe demolition works. The hazards were continuously monitored with Peak Environmental Ltd. and information shared with the demolition contractor, Napp Enterprises, to address asbestos, lead, vermiculite, mercury, air quality, acid waste, hydrocarbons and soils.

Materials such as copper, steel, wood flooring, cabinets, pipe, windows, wood beams, doors, hardware, wiring, fixtures, brick, concrete and wood waste were all recycled or reused to reduce the environmental impact.

School District 22 workforces constructed and commissioned a number of items for this school project. The electrical scope of work included the installation of the fire alarm system, intrusion alarm system, CCTV camera system, PA and clock system, ceiling-mounted projectors and screens. The carpentry works included building teachers’ desks, adding many millwork components, and installing fencing, basketball courts and goal posts, benches, tables, bollards, and bike racks on the school grounds.

In order to reduce the burden on the project budget, School District No. 22 self-managed scopes of work within the project – scopes of work that typically incur supervision costs, general condition costs, and fees when processed through the general contractor. The two main items to date are offsite development works and landscaping. Negotiating better pricing on construction change orders, new school equipment and materials has saved costs on the project budget.

Fresh from their December break, students welcomed the opportunity to begin the 2013 New Year with their studies and school activities in the new facility. Energy-efficiency and maintenance-friendliness are building aspects that are not immediately observable but this school definitely has both of those features. Open-concept, architecturally pleasing design and layout, excellent air quality, natural lighting, social space and new technology were immediately identified as “sick” by some students and “great” by many staff members the first day back. b