Murch Elementary School

The historic two-story Murch Elementary School building was originally built in 1929 and serves a student boy of 700 students. The modernization and expansion of the 100,000 sf building included updated classrooms, “pull-out” instruction spaces, a full-size gymnasium with stage, media center with “maker space,” laptop laboratory and small group instruction spaces, an administrative/welcome center, an art and kiln room, cafeteria, and a parking garage. The building also achieved LEED for Schools Gold certification.

The project’s superstructure primarily consists of structural steel framing in combination with a limited area of cast-in-place concrete construction. Structural steel framing within the project includes composite steel, open web joists, and long-span roof construction. The project’s concrete construction is limited to the floor framing above the garage and plaza. The existing buildings were analyzed to support new mechanical equipment and provide large openings in the existing bearing walls at the connection between the old and new building.