Ellsworth Elementary-Middle School

Ellsworth had two elementary schools, each serving a portion of the Kindergarten to Grade 5 population.  The town’s goal was to consolidate the two schools, but neither building could be feasibly renovated and each site was too small to meet the combined program requirements of a 21^st century school.  It was very important to the community that the elementary school remain within an existing urban neighborhood, but no parcels of sufficient size were available within the densely populated downtown.

The only site of suitable size within the downtown was the existing Ellsworth Middle School site.   Adjacent to Leonard Lake and 33.75 acres in size, it was partially wooded but predominantly developed by the existing 86,500sf school, its vehicular circulation areas, athletic fields and high school track facility.  At first, a stand-alone elementary school building on the Middle School site was studied.

Due to the location of the existing running track, poor structural soils on the existing fields, and the amount of area required for traffic redundancies that would be likely with two separate schools, the idea of building the new Elementary School as a 100,000sf addition to the existing Middle School was pursued.

Doing so required substantial renovations to the Middle School to fix code and program deficiencies.  Additionally, a new soccer field needed to be constructed at the High School, as there was inadequate space for middle school athletic fields without allowing the soccer field within the existing track to become a middle school field.

A  47,000sf renovation removed an abandoned wing of the Middle School (once a high school), provided new core space and upgraded classroom wings, and incorporated a major building addition for the new Elementary School that blended the preK-8 population on one campus, within one-half mile of the previous elementary schools.  The resulting 147,000sf building is LEED Silver-certified.  The 900-student school benefits from shared core elements, including cafeteria and library spaces, and consolidated human resources for more efficient operations.

Site disturbance was minimized by selective demolition and judicious placement of new building and site elements.  Bioretention cells, 80 geothermal wells beneath parking lots and playground, porous pavement at staff parking lots, and a 10,000sf vegetated roof provided low impact and energy saving improvements.  84% of demolition and construction debris was diverted from landfills, resulting in a significant cost savings for the Contractor.  The simulated energy savings was 52% greater than the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 baseline building.