Billie Martinez Elementary School Addition & Renovation

Project Description

The classroom addition is constructed on a load-bearing spread footing foundation once we over-excavated and reconditioned the subbase. The steel framed/braced joist building system is clad in metal stud walls with an EIFS/masonry veneer. Prior to the start of construction, the school had eight portable buildings, which the addition ultimately replaced. A challenge during construction of the addition was keeping the utilities online for the portable buildings while we reworked them for the addition.

The renovation included minor work including improvements to the existing art room to facilitate the addition, a remodel of the servery in the kitchen, turning an existing classroom into a therapy room, adding fire sprinklers to the west wing classrooms, and upgrading the fire alarm system throughout the school.

Sitework included site demolition to accommodate the new addition and the installation of new walkways and a rain garden. The rain garden is essentially a detention pond. The school’s roof will shed water to the surface drain in the new detention pond and will then trickle through a “growing media” before going into the storm pipe system underneath. The purpose of the rain garden is to help teachers demonstrate to students the cycle of water and how it helps grow plants before flowing into rivers and oceans.