The Wayne County Board of Education selected the joint venture of Metcon/T.A. Loving as the construction manager at-risk for the simultaneous delivery of two positive energy middle schools. The schools were built using concrete masonry unit (CMU) construction with masonry veneer, bar joists and metal decking and feature a geothermal well field, energy management system, LED lighting and solar arrays. With a low energy use intensity (EUI) rating of 15, these schools are the most energy efficient in the U.S. Both Spring Creek and Grantham serve 650 students, with capacity for 800. The two schools feature rooftop solar arrays that produce roughly 40% more power than the schools consume, geothermal heating and cooling systems, high-efficiency LED lighting and dynamic air cleaners that enable the use of smaller HVAC units.

The construction team’s most pressing concern occurred at the start of construction, as both building sites contained poor quality soils. Within three weeks of mobilizing, contractors determined that Grantham’s building pad would require a complete cut and fill to support construction. This delayed the start of work by almost three weeks and pushed back erection of the load-bearing CMU walls into the middle of winter. To overcome the delay, contractors coordinated with the concrete and masonry subcontractors to implement a six- and seven-day construction schedule during the structural phase in order to meet the original milestones.

An internal building dashboard that shows live data from more than 200 points illustrates the facility’s sustainability performance by outlining how various building systems work, such as the relationship between power production and use, water use and temperatures in the geothermal ground loops.