St. Ignatius Catholic School Named IBR’s Top 2018 Private Project
St. Ignatius Catholic School of Meridian, Idaho, was recently named First Place among private projects in the Idaho Business Review’s 2018 “Top Projects” issue! Full story on all the recipients here.
Wright Brothers joined Forces with CTA Architects Engineers to coordinate over 30 subcontractors to construct St. Ignatius, the first newly constructed Catholic School in Idaho in over 55 years.
The team build the state-of-the-art, 10-acre, 56,000 sq. ft. school for pre-K to eighth-grade students in one year and 10 days — on time and within budget. Over 40,000 labor hours were logged on the project with zero lost time incidents and no OSHA violations.
Time and budget were major challenges on the project. Coordinating with the Diocese of Boise, Holy Apostles Church, and its congregation required attentive communication to address and prioritize all parties’ concerns.
Thanks to careful planning, the team was able to close out portions of the school weeks before the turnover to the owner, enabling a seamless transition from construction to takeover of the property by the school’s maintenance personnel. This attentiveness to the design and budget allowed the school’s owners to incorporate an additional $150,000 worth of items midway through construction, including bleachers fro the gymnasium, additional security features, and higher-quality products than originally bid. These items were addressed early in teh design phase as value-added items that, at the owners’ choosing, could be included based on the overall budget.
Wright Brothers and the design team also worked closely with local law enforcement, third-party school administrators, and a security contractor to ensure that the school could defend against a potential active shooter through design and safety measures. The school features state-of-the-art cameras and locking mechanisms, which are monitored at all times by the school’s administration. In the event an intruder is able to get inside, all of the doors throuhgout the building automatically close, preventing the intruder from accessing other areas and allowing law enforment time to react to the situation.
In addition, the school embraces 21st-century learning environments with flexibility, agility, and adaptability integrated into the design. The building is easily subdivided into small learning communities, supporting safety, functionality, and acoustics. The facility includes 20 classrooms, a central commons-cafeteria with kitchen, full-size gymnasium with locker rooms, performing arts stage, flexible library connected to an outdoor garden, combination maker space/life sciences lab connected to another outdoor garden, teacher resource rooms, and small flexible learning communities.
