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Gilbane multitasks for University School
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Gilbane constructs the compass/multipurpose room on the south side of the new science addition. Photos courtesy of Gilbane Building Co. |
Gilbane Building Co. has a lot of balls in the air.
The construction manager is working just one project at the University School of Milwaukee in River Hills, but it’s juggling so many phases that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. Mix in 1,050 students attending classes in three-year-old kindergarten through high school and constant traffic concerns throughout the year, and the 122-acre campus starts to seem very small.
The overall project includes a three-story, 33,000-square-foot science center addition, renovations to the science areas that will move into the addition, a 6,000-square-foot addition for a new fitness center and business office and two separate phases of work to the east and west ends of the school’s field house and ice rink.
Gilbane, for that portion of the job, is renovating the west-end lobby and locker rooms and adding more locker space. The east-end work includes renovating the vacant transportation and grounds facility into three locker rooms, room for a future locker room, meeting space and a mechanical-support mezzanine.
Gilbane also is constructing an 8,000-square-foot building to house transportation and grounds, and it’s putting together grounds improvements and expanding the parking facility.
That’s a lot of work to organize, much less accomplish.
Projects Specs Project Name: University School of Milwaukee Campus Improvements Location: River Hills Architect: Uihlein Wilson Architects, Milwaukee Estimated Construction Cost: $13 million Start Date: February 2005 Scheduled Completion: August 2006 Project Fact In the mid-1980s, when University School built its high school, the average graduate took two and a half years of science courses. Now, graduates take an average of 4.1 years of science, with some taking seven or eight courses during high school. |
“One challenge was the multiphasing with areas being brought online at different times,” said John Gilroy, Gilbane’s project manager on the job. “It takes a lot of coordination with the school because we’re relocating staff and working around school activities.”
The project is the culmination of an idea that first took shape in the late 1990s, when school trustees and the head of school started talking about a need for a science center, said Ward Ghory, head of school at University School. That discussion turned into a strategic plan in 2000 and a green light for the project in November 2004.
“It was a very deliberate process with a long buildup,” Ghory said. “It was our biggest project in more than 20 years. It was the largest fund-raising project in the history of the school.”
But despite the challenge of keeping so many balls aloft, Gilbane hasn’t dropped one. As the project moves into November, the field house’s west-end work and the new transportation facility are complete, and the science center should be enclosed.
“We’re hitting schedule and budget so far,” Gilroy said.
And, perhaps more important than schedules and budgets, Ghory said the school is happy with the process and excited about the promise of an improved learning environment.
“People see the dramatic physical progress,” he said. “You can sense a little shiver of anticipation. People feel proud.”
- Chris Thompson