Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects worked with the General Contractor to get the project, originally slated for 18 months of construction, to be completed in about 10 months.
When Allegany College of Maryland closed its campus last year because of COVID-19, it gave contractors complete access to all areas of a building that was previously supposed to be occupied during construction. Now, with the project slated to be finished before spring, it’s crossing the finish line long before the targeted October 2021 completion.
“This isn’t something that happens very often,” says Peter Schwab, Associate Principal, licensed Architect and project manager at Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects. “We were presented with a unique opportunity, and we pulled our resources to work through it in a shorter time frame.”
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Murphy & Dittenhafer connected two buildings with five different floor elevations and topped them with a two-story entrance tower whose seating areas offer picturesque exterior views.
The firm also redesigned the academic spaces of the co-joined buildings. Lisa Clemens of M&D Interiors kept in mind both the functionality and appearance of labs and classrooms where students study robotics, forestry, health care, cyber security, and criminal justice.
Adjusting to the unknown
As can sometimes happen with interior renovations on older buildings, there can be unforeseen conditions, says Jonathan Taube, M&D Associate, who worked on the design of the project.
“We had to modify some of the designs to fit the realities of those conditions, but there are some really exciting things that came out of that,” Taube says.
Built in the 1970s, some of the original construction work was not done correctly, Schwab says. Unfortunately, that can be common for competitive construction projects of that era, he adds. When contractors opened the ceiling to make improvements during recent renovations, they found a wall completely open to the outside.
“These are important things that need to be addressed,” Schwab says. “Sometimes, that can hold a project back or impact budget. It’s important that we ensure the renovated space will not have those problems once everything is complete.”
A beautiful space
With construction issues worked out, Taube sees the student lounge spaces as the star of the project, where interior finishes help cozy spaces feel more spacious than they may actually be. While these spaces are part of the “hallway circulation”, they’re meant to feel more like places for students to hang out and collaborate. Most include glass dry erase boards on the wall that can be used to brainstorm and then can be wiped clean.
A hallway skylight and large windows allow a lot of natural daylight and a view of the campus. The other sources are a combination of up-lighting and suspended downlighting, providing a softer feel. The exposed ducts, pipes and electrical conduits in the ceiling plane were painted a light gray, which gives a softer feel than the more common black paint on those exposed components .
“This was a building that was your typical, uninspiring general contractor building of the 1970s,” Schwab says. “We wanted it to be a place where students would love to be, a place where they would love to learn. I’m excited to see them get to use that.”
Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects took on the Architecture, Interior Design, & Overall Project Management for the new Bedford Elementary School, and the outcome is impactful.