With a stellar record of preparing D.C. students for college, Benjamin Banneker Academic High School has a long history of setting a high bar. To build a new home for this lauded institution, the design and construction team was also expected to meet very high standards. Along with providing improved facilities for academic and extra-curricular excellence, the team needed to deliver a high-performing facility that could achieve net-zero energy use.
Working under a design-build contract with the District of Columbia Dept. of General Services, general contractor MCN Build Inc. and architect Perkins Eastman broke ground on the $137-million school in September 2019 with the mission of completing the 190,000-sq-ft school, athletic fields and community amenities in under two years.