Christian
School Daylights With Kalwall Religiously
Aurora Christian Middle/Senior High School
 |
An Aspen Group design/build project
It was the renovation that wasn't
supposed to happen.
To accommodate a growing
enrollment, the administration of Aurora Christian Middle/Senior
High School, in Aurora, Illinois, had been through renovations
before and decided this time to build a new facility on land
the school owned on the outskirts of town. Preliminary plans
had been drawn and the school was considering all options with
their newly hired design/build firm, the Aspen Group of Frankfort,
Illinois.
That's when the 160,000-square-foot, vacant warehouse became
available.
"In
many ways, it was ideal," says Aspen design manager Tony Mull.
"But there were challenges as well, not the least of which was
the nine-month completion deadline." Channels for plumbing and
network cables had to be chiseled through a solid concrete floor.
The former warehouse had problematic support posts every forty
feet to work around and seemingly endless interior walls to
create. "And Aurora didn't want the typical school's long, straight
hallways and institutional feel. Instead, corridors should wander
intriguingly, generating a sense of an exciting, unknown something
always around the next corner."
There was also a desire to divide the school into two "pods,"
one for the middle school and a second for the older students.
"Each pod would have a core gathering place," explains Mull,
"with classrooms arranged around it. Linking the two pods would
be a single, large cafeteria." In the end, Aurora would have
space for 900+ students, forty classrooms, the cafeteria, a
600-seat auditorium, locker rooms, a media center, and labs.
But first, perhaps the biggest challenge of all – a serious
lack of natural light – had to be conquered.
"Warehouses have very little use for windows," Mull observes.
The plans called for cutting a number of windows and doors out
of the concrete walls. "That helped, of course, but we still
needed a signature architectural element that could also bring
in controlled, natural daylight and conserve heating and cooling
costs. That's why we contacted Kalwall."
 |
An
Aspen Group design/build project
The result
was a huge, thirty- by forty-foot Kalwall gable Skyroof™ engineered,
manufactured and installed by Kalwall's strategic partner, Structures
Unlimited, Inc., that now hovers over the school's cafeteria.
"The Skyroof has a very clean and sharp appearance," says Mull.
"It's structurally sound without looking heavy. And the translucent
light Kalwall panels provide makes the cafeteria the real jewel
of the entire school. Natural light provides warmth and drama;
it draws people toward those areas."
Kalwall may also draw out better grades and behavior from students.
One study of 21,000 grade school children, conducted by the
California-based Heschong Mahone Group, points out that students
perform better and learn as much as 25 percent faster in classrooms
with a greater abundance of natural light. Theories swirl around
the cause of this improvement and include mood enhancement for
students as well as teachers, sharpened focus and memory, and
better synchronicity with the human body's circadian rhythms,
all brought on by introducing controlled, natural daylight into
a school's interior. There is even anecdotal evidence to suggest
that students in a naturally lit cafeteria take better care
of the facility and even clean up after themselves more consistently,
perhaps out of a sense of school pride.
Completed in January 2005, the 140,000-square-foot Aurora Christian
Middle/Senior High School is embraced by the community, loved
by its students and staff, and is enjoying rising enrollment.
"And the Kalwall/Structures Unlimited, Inc. Skyroof is no small
part of that," says Mull. "Initially, we chose Kalwall because
of its reputation for quality products, inherent energy savings,
and ability to meet the requirements for the most efficient
design of such a large structure. In the end, the Skyroof fit
exactly the way we wanted it to and was installed well within
the nine-month time frame. It is, frankly, awesome, in the word's
true sense; I would recommend Kalwall to anyone."
But the story doesn't end there. "We are also installing individual
Kalwall wall panels as a clerestory in Aurora's new 24,000-square-foot
gymnasium that will hold 1,600 spectators. In athletic facilities,
the shadowless, controlled natural daylight makes it easier,
for example, for athletes to see and control a basketball. All
in all, we are very satisfied with our Kalwall experience."
Aurora Christian Middle/Senior High School
Aurora, IL
Structures Unlimited, Inc. and Kalwall Specifications:
Skyroof: 30' x 40'
Light Transmission: 15%
Panel U-Value: .22
NFRC System U-Value: .35
Panel Color: White
Trim Color: White
For more information, contact:
Structures Unlimited, Inc., 603-645-6539 (800-225-3895 N. America)
|
|
