Atlantic Community High School

Centex Rooney is Building $53 Million School in Delray Beach

By Debra Wood

Recognizing that the existing Atlantic Community High School needed an overhaul, the Palm Beach County Public School District partnered with the city of Delray Beach to build a nine-building replacement campus.

"The city of Delray requested we move the school to make it more central to Delray," said Sandra Player, senior project administrator for the school district. "They wanted to make it more of a community school."

The city acquired the land for the project and then traded it with the school district for a portion of the existing school site, which the city will use for a soccer complex and other public facilities.

Former Mayor David Schmidt said in 2002, at the time of the deal with the school district, that the current high school property was in deplorable condition, and it was not economically feasible to renovate the old school. That lead to the replacement of the aging structure.

Samuel Ferreri, a principle with SchenkelShultz Architecture of West Palm Beach, designed the $53 million, courtyard-style prototype school, with the buildings surrounding the perimeter of the site. It will have 2,644 student stations and is similar to Palm Beach Central High School and a dozen other high schools around the state, all designed by Ferreri.

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"We tried to change the exterior to fit with the community," Ferrari said. "We dressed up the front with a lighthouse tower, a gazebo entry and lattice work."

Unlike the other schools, Atlantic High will have a construction academy with a shop for students to learn trade skills. Ferrari located it near the adult-education programs so it could service a dual purpose. In addition to the structure's use as a public school, the city anticipates Atlantic High will become a community and cultural center.

The entire campus is designed to withstand 145-mph hurricane-force winds and will be able to function as a public shelter for up to 6,000 people.

"It has generators and water tanks to sustain people in the shelter for about a week," Ferreri said.

For security, Ferreri configured buildings, such as the gym and auditorium, close to parking lots so they will welcome the public. The buildings will have plazas and lobby spaces with limited access to the rest of the campus. During school hours, people will enter only through the administration building.

Construction manager Centex-Rooney Construction Co. of Plantation, Fla., began work on the 386,800-sq.-ft. school in July 2003 and topped out in March. In a novel approach to complete the replacement campus on time, senior project manager John Southard divided the work into three teams.

"One of the challenges is the size of the project and how to address the sequence of work," Southard said. "One of the solutions we have developed is we created projects within the project."

Two teams split the administration, classroom, cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, media center and central plant. Each team has a superintendent and an assistant project manager who coordinate and supervise all construction activity for a group of buildings.

"That provides an opportunity for training of personnel," Southard said. "They are able to build the complete building, from foundation to completion, under an overall supervisor, such as myself, and a general superintendent."

Subcontractors work with both teams and were made aware of the dual-team concept when they bid.

"We were expecting the manpower and supervision from every subcontractor to run the job this way," Southard said.

Subcontractor Tilt-Con Corp. of Altamonte Springs, Fla., performed the tilt wall and treated the job as two separate projects, one for the north team and one with the south. Each had a couple of superintendents, and everything from invoices to daily reports was handled separately.

The individual teams are responsible for resolving their own issues, but Southard will occasionally step in to make decisions about shared resources. Southard admitted that the approach lends itself to a little friendly competition, with favorable results.

"I've done it before and found it to be very successful and continue doing jobs in this manner," he added. "It allows me to grow people to run a job."

A separate team manages work on the 44-acre site, including preconstruction preparation and earthwork, utility work, landscaping and building of the parking lots, ball fields and 4,100-seat stadium. The site team has its own budget and subcontractors.

By the end of April, about half the buildings were in the dry-in phase and interior build-out had begun on four of the structures. Southard expected to have the chiller plant operational and supplying air conditioning to the rest of the buildings in June. The project is on schedule for an on-time completion in June 2005.

"The project is going very well and ahead of schedule," said Player. "With individual teams, each team is able to focus on one section of the campus," Player said. "It is one of my smoothest running projects."

The buildings have a spread-foot foundation and are of tilt-wall construction. Tilt-Con cast all panels onsite.

"We utilized casting beds, which allowed the production of walls to be a continuous effort and allowed erection of panels to be a smooth sequence," Southard said.

All 400 panels were standing within 23 weeks, said Mark Theisen Jr., project manager for Tilt-Con. Work progressed simultaneously, flipping back and forth between the north and south teams. Tilt-Con sequenced buildings as requested by Centex-Rooney, rather than working straight down the courtyard.

"It is the quickest high school we have ever built," Theisen said. "The north-south teams helped considerably with the progress."

Project Team:

Owner: Palm Beach County Public School District
General Contractor: Centex Rooney Construction Co., Plantation
Architect: Schenkel Shultz Architecture, West Palm Beach
Tilt-up Contractor: Tilt-Con Corp., Altamonte Springs

Useful Sources:

For more information about this project, readers may view the Palm Beach County School District project report at http://165.161.3.47/mpr/status_report.cfm?proj_id=46