Project Team
Owner: Fulton County Schools
Location: Alpharetta, Ga.
Cost: $55.9 million
Contractor: Skanska USA Building, Atlanta
Architect: Perkins & Will Architects, Atlanta

Fulton County Schools needed a large school, built quickly, but it also required that the new facility be a state-of-the-art educational environment. That was because it's estimated that more than 90 percent of high-school students in this community are expected to pursue a postsecondary education. The new school will accommodate about 1,850 students.

The new, 335,000-sq.-ft. Alpharetta High School features four two-story classroom wings, with three of these each containing 17 classrooms, two science classrooms, two science labs, two business labs, one foreign-language lab, one math lab, one geography lab, a conference room and teacher's lounge. The fourth wing is designated for special education and contains six classrooms, two speech therapy classrooms, a teacher's workroom, home-living lab, six therapy rooms and psychology education classrooms.

Connecting the four wings is a three-story commons area that contains a full-service kitchen and cafeteria, media production rooms, conference room, administrative areas, technology lab, nutritional foods lab, professional foods lab, multimedia classrooms, professional foods lab and seminar rooms.

The school also features a performing arts center with orchestra pit and stage, set-storage and -construction rooms, dressing rooms, band and choral rooms, orchestra room, photography lab and two art classrooms.

The gymnasium features a competition basketball court and practice court, climbing wall, elevated running track, weight room, locker rooms, fitness center and indoor rifle range.

The sports complex includes a football field with home/visitor stadium, softball field, baseball field with stadium seating, practice field and four tennis courts. Ball fields were completed by August 2003, allowing them a one-year growing period prior to the start of school in 2004.

Skanska USA Building utilized a structural steel system for the classroom wings, commons area and performing-arts center, and a reinforced concrete structure for the gym. The facility is clad with a combination of ground-face block, brick and more than 70,000 metal siding shingles. Flying buttress columns punctuate the building's exterior and serve aesthetic as well as functional purposes, incorporating downspouts for the gutter system.

The downspouts route rainwater into a bioretention "rain garden" that captures and cleans water runoff before it enters nearby Big Creek.

The project's design incorporates the natural surroundings into the building's environment, with extensive window systems flooding the school with natural daylight - a factor reportedly shown to enhance the learning process. Classroom windows start 42 in. from the floor, allowing sufficient daylight in but eliminating any other distractions at the ground level. Floor-to-ceiling windows in common areas provide views of the nearby forest.

One of the rainiest seasons in Georgia's history fell within the project's 24-month schedule. Over the course of roughly three months in 2002, 24 in. of rain fell in Atlanta.

During this time, the Skanska-led team was focused on foundation work. To stay on schedule, a massive dewatering operation was implemented, with more than 7,000 manhours spent pumping or otherwise dealing with excessive water. Additionally, approximately 2,700 tons of rock were used to drain excavated areas.

The project also included a $5 million road-widening package for two main thoroughfares abutting the school's property. Soon after work began, Skanska discovered a sinkhole that threatened the stability of Webb Bridge Road. To maintain the integrity of the roadway, the project team relocated a 30-in. water main and then worked with subcontractors and other entities to repair the sinkhole.

The 73-acre site featured more than 100 ft. of elevation change and thus required a $3 million, 330,000-sq.-ft. retention-wall system constructed of a combination of earthen and block walls.

Finally, the Skanska team used a "Stretch and Flex" program as part of its Incident-Free Environment program. Every morning the team stretched with every trade to get ready for the workday. The program resulted in no soft-tissue injuries throughout the project.