Core is building the $59 million school – including six buildings, a football stadium and athletic fields – which will began accommodating students when the 2009 school year started on Aug. 10. Construction started in February 2008; the phased turnover began in April 2009 and will be completely turned over by Sept. 30, 2009. The new facility will be fed from existing schools to hold a capacity of approximately 1,500 students.   

Campo Verde’s campus buildings – which total 248,037 square feet – will include two primary classroom buildings, an administrative building, a 725-seat auditorium building, a gymnasium, and a field house adjacent to the football stadium.    

The school’s gymnasium building will feature locker rooms, weight rooms, training rooms and athletic courts, Project Manager Dave Tucker says. The auditorium building will feature band and arts rooms, and the field house will have locker rooms.   

Core Construction is incorporating some green features in the school’s buildings, including solar panels, insulated glass and sun shades in exterior windows, dual-flush toilets, an energy-management system that allows temperature and lighting control, and motion sensors on interior lights so if rooms are unoccupied, lights will turn off, Tucker says.    

Because the school is located on a previously undeveloped site, Tucker says a major challenge has been off-site improvements. “It was hard interfacing with all the public utility companies and relocating underground utility lines, power lines, traffic signals and street lighting,” he states. “It took a lot of coordination meetings, planning and communicating with all the different subcontractors and utility companies.”   

Building during a slow time in the construction industry also was key in making the project successful, he says. “We’re building the school at the right time because there are excess labor forces,” Tucker states. “When work was slowing down, we had a lot of companies looking for work for their guys, so we had a surplus of crews and took advantage of that to get the job done early.”   

Core’s previous work with GPS also is making the project run smoothly. “We really just know what our customer’s expectations are,” Tucker continues. “That’s one of the huge attributes – knowing our customer and knowing our customer’s needs.”

Good Sports
When the project is completed, Tucker says one of the major highlights will be the athletic fields. Campo Verde’s football stadium will have a capacity of approximately 4,000, and although it features artificial turf, it will be high tech and include a state-of-the-art irrigation system.    

“It sounds weird that artificial turf would need irrigation, but the playing surface temperatures in Arizona get really hot,” he explains. “So we put in an upgraded system for the turf to cool off, and it includes water cannons.”   

The turf also is similar to the kind used in playing facilities beyond the high school level. “The school’s baseball fields and all the artificial turf is state-of-the-art,” Tucker continues. “The turf is a Duraspine, and they also do NFL and university-level playing surfaces.”

Rooted in History
Upon immigrating to the United States in 1925, German Otto Baum began farming in central Illinois to repay the sponsor of his move. After two years, he began work as a bricklayer, eventually founding his own masonry company in 1937.    

Baum’s four sons learned the ropes of the construction business, expanding Core Construction into all areas of the industry. In addition to Illinois, the company now has offices in  Arizona, Florida, Texas  and Nevada.   

“In German, the last name of our founder, Otto Baum, means tree,” the company states. “Each tree has a core – its center and strength. As the tree grows, rings radiate out from the core. Likewise, as you explore the history of Core Construction, you will see we've added many ‘rings’ to our core – new locations, new projects, new services and new people.    

“Together, they represent the level of experience, expertise and capabilities you need to make your project a success,” Core continues.

Source: http://www.buildingandconstruction-southwest.com/content/view/599/31/