Built to suit

Capitol Middle School topped with 45-ft.-high clerestory

By Sam Barnes

A 45-ft.-high entranceway clerestory provides the centerpiece for the new $10.4 million Capitol Middle School under construction in north Baton Rouge.

The 120,000-sq.-ft. steel and masonry building is the latest construction project in East Baton Rouge Parish's $287 million facilities improvement program and will be finished this summer.

"East Baton Rouge Parish approved a tax proposal in 1998 to fund improvements to facilities/technology, discipline and compensation," said Jim Smith, a project manager with CSRS/The Facility Group of Baton Rouge, the firm hired by the school board to supervise the program

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"The facilities and technology portion of the plan is focused on upgrading facilities for optimal safety, health and comfort and providing technology for the acquisition of basic skills and tools for the workplace so that students are competitive."

The plan is financed through a sales tax on a "pay-as-you-go" basis for five years.

Capitol Middle School will accommodate about 850 sixth to eighth grade students and include classrooms and venues for special education, media center, visual arts, performing arts, physical education, family and consumer science, business education, technology education, administration, student services and a cafeteria.

The school was designed by a joint venture of Architect Julian Thaddeus White and Bani, Carville & Brown Architects, both of Baton Rouge.

John Meek, project manager with Buquet & LeBlanc Inc. of Baton Rouge, said the clerestory at the building's entranceway is made up of 6-in. tubes that were fabricated on the ground and lifted into place in one piece to support the roof for the clerestory.

The sections were pre-assembled because of their complexity.

"It's going to be right in the middle of the entrance," Meek said. "Natural lighting will filter down through it." The roof for the atrium wing will be made of light gauge metal.

Southern Steel Fabricators of Baton Rouge performed fabrication, assembly and erection.

The five-wing building will contain all the classrooms, administrative offices, library and cafeteria for the school. A mechanical building is also being constructed.

Meek said the school campus includes football and baseball fields that were built as part of a separate contract. The main building will contain 15 classrooms and five science labs.

When work began at the site, the building pad had been prepared as part of an earlier contract by Rad-Ton Construction of Baton Rouge.

"Cajun Constructors Inc. of Baton Rouge drilled 464 shafts varying in size from 18 to 36 in. diameter and to depths of 25 ft.," Meek added. The larger shafts are located beneath the atrium at the building's entrance and beneath some large columns that support the gymnasium roof.

The shafts were delayed by nearly a month due to bad weather but "right after completion of the shafts, we had a lot of good weather that allowed us to catch up by working some 10-hour days," jobsite superintendent Larry Lemoine said.

Lemoine and Meek attribute much of the success of the project to Keith Sharon's Masonry of Baton Rouge, which installed 130,000 concrete blocks and 40,000 face brick - all part of the project's "critical path."

"Without the walls up, practically nothing else can happen," Meek said. About 20 masons were working at the site at peak.

"We're caught up now," he added. 'We're right on schedule."

The slab for the building measures 4 in. thick and requires 3,500 psi concrete, all supplied by Ascension Ready Mix of Gonzales. Most of the mix was pumped, with the exception of parking areas and driveways.

Interior walls consist primarily of load-bearing concrete block, although there is some drywall in the administrative area. Steel columns run through the classroom building.

"The roof for the building is supported by a metal truss system, followed by metal decking and plywood," Lemoine said. "Lloyd Moreau assembled and erected the trusses, as well as the remainder of the roof work."

A 14,000-sq.-ft., pre-engineered metal building erected by Reed Erectors will serve as the school's gymnasium. Tapered steel columns support the gym.

Interior finishes consist of casework in offices and administrative areas, vinyl tile floors and wood flooring in the gymnasium.

Mechanical phases of the project required the installation of a "fairly simple" chillwater cooling system in a nearby central plant, while electrical is somewhat more extensive.

"This school will have the 'latest and greatest' in terms of data and communications technology," Meek said. "There's a tremendous amount of data cable and all the classrooms are going to be Internet ready. Now they're in the process of adding ceiling-mounted projectors to the design. It's real cutting-edge stuff."

Useful resource

For up-to-date information on East Baton Rouge Parish School System improvements, go to: http://ebrpss.csrsonline.com/