ST. PAUL, Minn. — School safety is always a concern and has become an even larger issue over the last few years. Changes in design and operations are occurring throughout the country in order to increase security on campus, including recent updates for two school districts in Minnesota.
BLACKSBURG, Va. — High school students at the Giles County Technology Center in Pearisburg, Va., which serves both Giles and Narrows high schools, are in the middle of creating a house for Habitat for Humanity in their shop. While they have a good understanding of traditional building methods, they aren’t as familiar with green building practices. As such, Virginia Tech students in the College of Natural Resources and Environment were assigned the unique task of helping develop teaching materials on green building for the high school students.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The presidents of three Rhode Island universities — alongside a number of political, educational, design and construction representatives — broke ground Dec. 15 on the new Rhode Island Nursing Education Center. This sprawling facility will provide top level nursing education to students from the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College, as well as administrative space to Brown University, at an estimated construction cost of $215 million.
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — As school budgets continue to decrease, school districts are finding alternative ways to save on construction and renovation projects. One of the latest ways: weaving advertising logos into the sidelines of athletic fields.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Rutherford County Schools will need more than $287.9 million to carry out the most recent version of the school officials’ five-year building plan, which calls for the construction of six new schools. The construction projects would require tax increases to help with funding.
NEW ORLEANS, La. — On Dec. 6, Nearly 60 percent of voters supported a ballot proposition that will fund school repairs and upkeep projects across New Orleans for the next decade. The proposition will renew a 4.97-mill property tax currently used to pay off district debt and funnel those funds, an estimated $15.5 million annually, directly into much needed school maintenance projects through 2025. With additional funds from a district sales tax redirected by the state legislature, schools will eventually have an estimated $30 million for repairs at their disposal per year.
LA CROSSE, Wis. — University of Wisconsin La Crosse leaders have selected the collaborative of SmithGroupJJR, headquartered in Detroit, and local partner River Architects of La Crosse to design the university’s new $82 million instructional science facility. The project will involve a complete replacement of the school’s existing Cowley Hall, built in 1965, which houses the current UW-La Crosse science instruction facility.
DAYTON, Ohio — As the drone industry awaits much-anticipated federal rules on the commercial operation of drones in U.S. airspace, Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio is coming up with its own solution. The college plans to build a 12-meter-high pavilion that would provide students enrolled in UAV- and aviation-related courses to test their flying machines without being concerned about any current or future Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restrictions.
NEWARK, N.J. — Newark Campus of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) saved $1,155,000 in its first two years of operation due to a program that involved continuous energy supervision of its chiller plant, boiler and cogeneration facility.
FLUSHING, N.Y. — Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology recently completed a sweeping, multi-phased expansion and renovation that introduced a number of modern upgrades to the more than 70-year-old campus. The project took roughly three years to complete and transformed the private, four-year college into a progressive and technologically advanced aeronautical engineering institution.
