Alten Construction completes classroom building replacement

Oakland CA

28 August, 2020

10:37 AM

Description

OAKLAND, Calif. — Alten Construction, a full-service San Francisco Bay Area commercial construction company, recently completed a 55,000-square-foot classroom building replacement for Glenview Elementary School in the Oakland Unified School District. The new state-of-the-art facility replaces the transitional kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary school’s previous classroom building and seven portables. Distanced learning is scheduled to begin from the new campus in August 2020, with the hopeful return of in-person instruction in October 2020. “This has been a difficult project, but the end result is well worth the effort,” said Andrew Nortz, vice president of operations for Alten Construction. “The incoming and returning students and families will have a high-tech elementary school to serve as a cornerstone of the community for many, many years to come.” For this project, Alten Construction partnered with ADCo, a small, local Oakland business, to build their third project together as a joint venture. HKIT Architects designed the new, net zero energy (NZE) elementary school campus. Pre-construction services for the project began in 2014 followed by incremental phases 1 and 2 in 2016. Incremental phase 3 included the new building portion of the roughly $38.6 million project. Enacted in 2008, the Oakland Unified School District’s local business utilization initiative aims to stimulate the area economy and support small businesses. Alten Construction has been a part of the joint venture for the past nine years, working on capital projects for the school district. “Through this joint venture, we were able to share the project management and project delivery responsibilities while at the same time having a close tie and connection to the community,” said Nortz. Built in the 1920s, the original building needed to be replaced to meet the growing needs of the students. The scope of the project included demolition, the replacement of the existing building and new utilities throughout the new building. For this project, Alten Construction was tasked with building a new school in the middle of a tight-knit community with neighboring houses very close to the property lines. This project also presented several other unique circumstances, including a very high percentage of local business involved in the various incremental phases. Located at 4215 La Cresta Ave. in the Glenview neighborhood, the new campus features large, bright classrooms with high-tech infrastructure and advanced data and communications systems. Lively patterns and colors were utilized throughout the building to reflect the nature of the school’s highly successful arts-focused curriculum. The space includes a multipurpose room with a stage, library, administrative, support and flexible spaces, a playground and 17 classrooms, among other features. “The Glenview students, families and staff are beyond excited to move into our state-of-the-art building in the Glenview neighborhood,” said Glenview Elementary School principal Rachel Quinn. “This new modern facility will allow our students to grow and explore through innovation and artistic expression while developing a lifelong love of learning.” There are also a few reclaimed features that pay homage to the original campus’ rich history. Alten Construction saved the original art deco portico entry facade and built interior benches in the lobbies and library from the maple hardwood found in the original gymnasium. Designed to be a NZE ready facility, the new building is extremely insulated and relies on natural daylight to reduce energy requirements. The seismically sound building also includes updated plumbing, electric HVAC and Wi-Fi systems. Alten Construction also completed necessary site work, including repaving of the main entry, landscaping and American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) access to the entire site. Glenview Elementary School is a public kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary school, with 460 students enrolled in Oakland. Part of the Oakland Unified School District, it comprises 83 district-run schools and 33 district-authorized charter schools. During construction, the school was temporarily located on an interim campus at the former Santa Fe Elementary School. The new classroom building replacement was funded by Measure J, Measure B and Fund 25 funds. Photo 1 attached: Exterior of Glenview Elementary School