A joint venture of Bacon Construction and Agostini Construction, operating as construction-manager-at-risk, is approximately 80% complete with renovations and alterations to Taunton High School and construction of the new Parker Middle School. The project includes over 550,000sf of combined new and renovated space and is budgeted in excess of $100 million.
Design Partnership of Cambridge, Inc. (DPC) is the architect and Gilbane Company is the owner’s project manager.
This challenging project is being accomplished in seven phases over three-and-a-half years while the facility remains occupied and fully operational. Bacon-Agostini has accomplished the first four phases, closing each out on schedule, and Phase 5 is now nearing completion, also on schedule. Over the course of the project to date, the value of construction in place has averaged $1 million per week.
Like most projects of significant scope, the transformation of Taunton High School and Parker Middle School has required an extended effort by many constituents to finally become a reality. DPC completed the initial programming, schematic design and grant application filing in 2001, under the auspices of the former School Building Assistance Bureau.
Although accepted for state reimbursement, the project was then shelved. When the Massachusetts School Building Authority was formed to direct a new program of state assistance for public school construction, the continuing dedication of Taunton’s proponents – past and present school superintendents, mayors, school committee and city council members and legislators – bore fruit, as the project was reinstated to active status in 2006 and permitted to move forward.
From the outset, DPC’s assignment has been no less than to bring the facility and its educational program into the 21st century. After 40 years of service, there could be no disagreement that the building and building systems were desperately in need of attention. Band-aid approaches had prolonged the useful life of key elements such as the roof and the HVAC system, but could not be relied upon indefinitely. Furthermore, estimates of the City’s population growth over the coming 20 years indicated there would soon be need for additional capacity. Also, Taunton’s educational emphasis had evolved from a comprehensive high school program, offering both academic and pre-career tracks, to a more focused two- and four-year college preparatory curriculum with fewer vocational offerings.
When the project was restarted in 2006, five years had passed since the programming study which shaped the original design, so DPC returned to the drawing board, re-interviewing department heads, administrators and program directors to gain the most up-to-date information and modify plans accordingly. The final project thus developed included extensive renovations and system replacements throughout the existing school’s 485,000 square feet. In addition, to provide space for a projected increase in grade 9-12 enrollment from 2000 to 2600, it was decided to relocate the embedded Parker Middle School to a new, purpose-built wing that would better support its grade 5– 8 curriculum and provide a long desired distinct identity
for Parker’s student body. This added almost 70,000sf of new construction to the project scope.
To provide for updated programs and solve some long standing adjacency conflicts, the interior arrangement of the High School was substantially redesigned. While the new plan retains the school’s original departmental structure, shifting educational emphasis dictated a larger science department, and lab space is increased by almost 50%; also all existing labs are completely renovated and re-equipped. Use analysis of the school’s original slope-floor lecture halls showed that two of the four could be repurposed and infilled to create additional classrooms, allowing consolidation of the previously fragmented foreign language department. Another major plan shift relocates the central administration and guidance suites to overlook a new main entrance and lobby.
At the time design of the Taunton project was nearing completion Construction-Manager-at-Risk was a relatively new strategy for Massachusetts public school construction.
However, the Owner, Gilbane and DPC, after conferring with the MSBA, concluded that this delivery system would have several advantages. First, it was thought the size of the project might limit competition by traditional general contractors, making a CMAR relationship more advantageous, with better control of final pricing and better control over subcontractors.
Additionally, to meet the multiple challenges of providing substantial renovations and system replacements within an occupied, functioning school, early CMAR input was considered mandatory in order to develop the critical project elements of phasing and scheduling. Looking back, CMAR was indeed the correct decision. With only 20% of construction value remaining to be placed, this project delivery system with Bacon-Agostini JV has proved to be extremely responsive and effective, providing quality work, efficiency and a true spirit of open communication and cooperation among all members of the project team.