The Villages Charter School High School

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

New greenfield charter high school for The Villages Charter School. The 450,000-square-foot high school campus is approximately 30% bigger than many of the prototypical high schools we build and includes world-class academic and athletic facilities. The academic buildings feature high-end finishes and dedicated spaces for each of their many specialty academies, including Agriculture, Business and Banking, Computer Science, Construction, Culinary, Digital Media, Engineering, Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, and Health Sciences. The athletic facilities include a standard high school gymnasium, a separate arena with four full-size basketball courts, an artificial turf football field with a precast stadium inclusive of a four-story media tower and the capacity to expand to seat 10,000 guests, an artificial turf multipurpose field, artificial turf baseball and softball fields, four natural turf soccer fields, a golf education building inclusive of two simulators and an artificial turf chipping/putting green, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, eight tennis courts, exterior basketball courts, and sand volleyball courts.

Reference:

https://whartonsmith.com/portfolio-items/villages-charter-high-school-south-campus/

What obstacles were overcome related to the schedule, budget, program, specification, site, etc. on this project?

• Activities started on site prior to the completion of design as many design decisions continued to be finalized as construction was ongoing. This created the need for an immediate reactionary approach to incorporate the work insuring the August 2023 opening.
• The high-end finishes that were incorporated into this campus didn't always include locally sourced materials creating longer lead times as freight time was often required for materials coming from across the United States. An example of this is the sourcing of over 50,000 units of Arriscraft stone which consisted of over 48 different units because of shapes, sizes, and colors.
• The onsite coordination of daily manpower, in excess of 650 craft workers, including in excess of 80+ VMG craft workers.
• Mix designs from the local concrete supplier were based on the inclusion of granite in lieu of lime rock requiring a nontypical cutting schedules for all on site flat work joints.
• This project was constructed during the post Covid times of 2021 and 2022 with material, equipment and labor all being incredibly scarce. Premium work hours and a strategic approach to executing the weekly goals for the project overcame these issues.
• The need for redesign of tilt panels during the detailing stage at high profile area to provide the look the Client desired while making the constructability and lifting of the panel possible.
• The inclusion of excavation and concrete structure, slab and vertical walls, for an Olympic sized swimming pool immediately adjacent to previously erected buildings.

Please communicate any engineering complexities or unique features of the panel design for this project?

The volume of engineering performed on this tilt-up project was unique on its own with a total of 546 panels spanning 15 buildings. Most panels were one of a kind as this design didn't utilize many ‘typical' panels. The panel at the front of the performing arts center stage stands out as it was originally shown on the Contract Drawings to be 58'-0" tall by 56'-0" wide and 11 ¼" thick with a 48'-0" tall by 22'-0" opening in the middle. It was determined during the engineering, shop drawing and detailing process that this panel was required to be split into two separate panels with two temporary columns at the opening. This was then stitched back together with panel-to-panel connections and a grouted joint. This approach was a great example of the collaboration between VMG Construction, the General Contractor, the Engineer of Record, and the Architect.

What is the potential for this project's impact on the community and/or environment?

The Villages Charter School is a world class facility that reaches far beyond the intended traditional educational need of the campus. The multiple academies that were included in this facility allow all students the opportunity to find their niche and be successful in their future careers. Further, the athletic facilities are designed to meet the needs of the school while also consistently welcoming numerous camps, tournaments, swim meets and community functions to take place. This campus, the first vertical structure in the newly established town of Middleton, FL, is certainly the hub for the residential areas and town center being developed around it.