Christian
School Daylights With Kalwall Religiously
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| An
Aspen Group design/build project |
It
was the renovation that wasn’t supposed to happen.
To accommodate
a growing enrollment, the administration of Aurora Christian
Middle/Senior High School, in Aurora, Illinois, had been through
renovations before and decided this time to build a new facility
on land the school owned on the outskirts of town. Preliminary
plans had been drawn and the school was considering all options
with their newly hired design/build firm, the Aspen Group of
Frankfort, Illinois.
That’s
when the 160,000-square-foot, vacant warehouse became available.
“In many ways, it was ideal,” says Aspen design manager
Tony Mull. “But there were challenges as well, not the
least of which was the nine-month completion deadline.”
Channels for plumbing and network cables had to be chiseled
through a solid concrete floor. The former warehouse had problematic
support posts every forty feet to work around and seemingly
endless interior walls to create. “And Aurora didn’t
want the typical school’s long, straight hallways and institutional
feel. Instead, corridors should wander intriguingly, generating
a sense of an exciting, unknown something always around the
next corner.”
There was
also a desire to divide the school into two “pods,”
one for the middle school and a second for the older students.
“Each pod would have a core gathering place,” explains
Mull, “with classrooms arranged around it. Linking the
two pods would be a single, large cafeteria.” In the end,
Aurora would have space for 900+ students, forty classrooms,
the cafeteria, a 600-seat auditorium, locker rooms, a media
center, and labs. But first, perhaps the biggest challenge of
all – a serious lack of natural light – had to be
conquered.
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|
An
Aspen Group design/build project
|
“Warehouses
have very little use for windows,” Mull observes. The plans
called for cutting a number of windows and doors out of the
concrete walls. “That helped, of course, but we still needed
a signature architectural element that could also bring in controlled,
natural daylight and conserve heating and cooling costs. That’s
why we contacted Kalwall.”
The result
was a huge, thirty- by forty-foot Kalwall gable Skyroof™ engineered, manufactured and installed by Kalwall's strategic partner, Structures Unlimited, Inc., that now hovers over the school’s cafeteria. “The
Skyroof has a very clean and sharp appearance,” says Mull.
“It’s structurally sound without looking heavy. And
the translucent light Kalwall panels provide makes the cafeteria
the real jewel of the entire school. Natural light provides
warmth and drama; it draws people toward those areas.”
Kalwall may also draw out better grades and behavior from students.
One study of 21,000 grade school children, conducted by the
California-based Heschong Mahone Group, points out that students
perform better and learn as much as 25 percent faster in classrooms
with a greater abundance of natural light. Theories swirl around
the cause of this improvement and include mood enhancement for
students as well as teachers, sharpened focus and memory, and
better synchronicity with the human body’s circadian rhythms,
all brought on by introducing controlled, natural daylight into
a school’s interior. There is even anecdotal evidence to
suggest that students in a naturally lit cafeteria take better
care of the facility and even clean up after themselves more
consistently, perhaps out of a sense of school pride.
Completed
in January 2005, the 140,000-square-foot Aurora Christian Middle/Senior
High School is embraced by the community, loved by its students
and staff, and is enjoying rising enrollment. “And the
Kalwall/Structures Unlimited, Inc. Skyroof is no small part of that,” says Mull. “Initially,
we chose Kalwall because of its reputation for quality products,
inherent energy savings, and ability to meet the requirements
for the most efficient design of such a large structure. In
the end, the Skyroof fit exactly the way we wanted it
to and was installed well within the nine-month time frame.
It is, frankly, awesome, in the word’s true sense; I would
recommend Kalwall to anyone.”
But the story doesn’t end there. “We are also installing
individual Kalwall wall panels as a clerestory in Aurora’s
new 24,000-square-foot gymnasium that will hold 1,600 spectators.
In athletic facilities, the shadowless, controlled natural daylight
makes it easier, for example, for athletes to see and control
a basketball. All in all, we are very satisfied with our Kalwall
experience.”
Aurora
Christian Middle/Senior High School
Architect:
Aspen Group
Kalwall
Panel Specifications:
Skyroof: 30' x 40'
Light Transmission: 15%
Panel U-Value: .22
NFRC System U-Value: .35
Panel Color: White
Trim Color: White
For more information, contact:
Bruce Keller
Kalwall Corporation 603-627-3861 (800-258-9777 N. America)
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