Category: News

417 Featured Firm

Posted By bsapp – Oct 16 | 2012

Jury Comments:“The jury found the approach to program to be very ambitious and creative; the design itself exhibited interesting lines and innovative use of materials, brought together in a cohesive whole that makes a worthy civic monument.”[/bra_blockquote]Take a look at the July 2012 Issue of 417 Magazine’s feature on this years AIA Architectural Design Awards with one of the winners being The Carl Junction Community Center. We are proud to have the public Jury select one of SDA Architect’s project as a winner because 90% of our work is public projects and the public is who we aim to please with that being said this year is shaping up to be a great year with new designs rolling out and new buildings under construction.

Ground Breaking: Joplin Irving Elementary

Posted By bsapp – May 22 | 2012

Today marks  the anniversary of the May 22nd tornado that struck Joplin MO.  In memory of that day Joplin School broke ground on 3 new schools one being Irving Elementary which the SDA Team has had the privilege to be a part of as the Architects. This  new exciting school building will be approximately 85,000 sq. ft., primarily on one level, with the south classroom wing being two stories “split-level”.  The building is designed for up to 600 students, K-5. The north classroom wing or “learning center” will house the Kindergarten and First Grade, and will be one story.

The building will have a modern technology infrastructure, designed for future flexibility, and will have state of the art security and access control.The building and grounds will also be designed for good supervision, and to minimize vandalism and security problems.   It is also designed for community use of gyms, meeting rooms, and use of the grounds for public functions and various school events.  The new school is designed to be flexible and adaptable to meet modern and future educational and community needs.

Ground Breaking at Waynesville High School

Posted By bsapp – Apr 16 | 2012

Last week, the SDA Team broke ground on a complex project involving multiple additions and renovation at Waynesville High School. The additions are required to support a rapidly growing community and include additions for a separate 9th wing and expand the Cafeteria and Library spaces. Many athletic improvements will be made with help from a new athletic complex that consist of a synthetic turf football filed and track, new grandstands that can seat 3,000 people and two new field houses. We are very excited about this project and the opportunity to work with the Waynesville school district on another great project.

Joplin Students Help with the Design of their New School.

Posted By bsapp – Jan 31 | 2012

Since the tornado that struck Joplin on May 22, 2011, Sapp Design Associates Architects has been working closely with the Joplin School District on projects like the 65-day rebuild of the Franklin Technology Center and now the design of the new Irving Elementary School. For months we have been working with teachers, parents and administrators to  formulate a sound plan for the new school.

Tuesday 1/31/2012, was a very exciting day for the design team because we got the opportunity to work with a very enthusiast group of Joplin Elementary School Students on what they thought their new school should look like. Through a series of slide shows, word games and one-on-one interaction, the team was able to gain information that will truly affect how this elementary school is designed. The input we received was anything but elementary – no pun intended. The feedback from the students was truly useful information with comments such as “we like windows but not the glare on the smart boards” and “I like big open spaces.” Overwhelmingly, the one design element they all agreed on was COLOR and MORE COLOR!!! Now, our task is to interpret the student’s concerns and ideas into a design that will be a school for the 21st Century.

Going for the LEED Gold

Posted By bsapp – Nov 22 | 2011

The AECI project was able to achieve LEED Gold. This is one the first office buildings of this scale to achieve LEED gold in this area. The following are the sustainable items that were part of the building’s design.

One of the most significant decisions made during the design of the new AECI building was the decision to design an HVAC system that utilizes geothermal energy from the ground. For this project, it is projected that operation of the building could achieve as much as 42% cost savings over a typical non geothermal forced air system.

  • Since a considerable amount of the energy consumed within a building is contributed to the lighting of the building, high efficient light fixtures were specified. Lighting controls and occupancy sensors will turn lights on and off as needed. Appliances were also specified with the ENERGY STAR label.
  • Cool roofing material was also specified to avoid the “heat up” of the building and eliminate the need to upsize and run the cooling equipment longer.
  • The building envelope was designed for a R-37 for the walls and a R-26 for the roof.
  • 95% of trash that was generated during construction away from the local landfills to alternative locations were segregated materials such as cardboard, wood, plastic, and glass could be recycled into other useful products for consumers
  • 20% of all materials was procured regionally or within 500 miles.

Opening Clever Performing Arts Center

Posted By bsapp – Nov 20 | 2011

The Clever R-V School District celebrated the opening of their new Performing Arts Center with messages from local representatives, music performances, and theater presentations.  The new Performing Arts Center is an addition to the existing high school, which was constructed in 2008.  The Performing Arts Center was part of the long range master plan for the site, and accommodations were made for the Center in the original design of the high school.  The new Performing Arts Center seats up to 551 patrons, and includes 510 fixed seats, with space for (2) additional rows of movable seating.  Also included in the addition was a new lobby area, ticket booth, and drama classroom. Currently, Clever’s band and vocal music departments share a single teaching space in the existing high school facility.  However, construction is ongoing for a new band room on the southwest side of the Performing Arts Center.  The band room addition will double as a FEMA 361 Tornado Safe Room, and will provide a safe and secure location for the high school students, faculty and staff, as well as the surrounding community, during high wind storms.

Opening Monett Elementary

Posted By bsapp – Nov 5 | 2011

This campus, first constructed in the 1960’s, was comprised of nine separate buildings, creating significant challenges in circulation, security, and school administration. The new design incorporates almost 63,000 s.f. of additions, including a Commons Area, Administration Suite, and three Classroom Wings, as well as over 28,000 s.f. of major renovations, to combine four of the existing buildings into one unified school building. The former Gymnasium has been renovated into a new Library. A new FEMA 361 Safe Room is in process through the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. This space functions as the new multi-purpose Gymnasium and will safeguard students, staff, and the surrounding residential community in the event of high-wind storms.

The new plan addresses improved energy efficiency, security, circulation and accessibility. Redesign of the campus site circulation creates a new Main Entrance and separates bus traffic from parent drop-off and service traffic, creating safer, more efficient site circulation.

 

Springfield AIA Helps Joplin Plan

Posted By bsapp – Oct 19 | 2011

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) conducted a design charrette for the City of Joplin on Oct. 13-14.  The SDA team was excited for the opportunity to get involved and work with the AIA and CART for some hands-on design work to help develop project ideas for Joplin’s recovery. This was a significant event where design professionals from allover the region came together to work out ideas and develop the vision and goals set forth by the Citizens AdvisorySteve Telscher Recovery Team (CART).  This two-day event included members of the CART, the City of Joplin, Chamber of Commerce, FEMA, State resources, architects, engineers, planners, and many other volunteers. The event concluded with a “presentation of ideas” to the public in an Open House format on Friday, Oct. 14th. CART is preparing for the Nov. 7 Council Meeting and the AIA will be using the information to put together a booklet to document the process and outcome.

 

Greening Nixa Schools

Posted By bsapp – May 17 | 2011

This is the fourth presentation this year for Nixa’s schools Adopt-a-class program that SDA has been participating in throughout the year.  Each class presentation consists of educating the students on different types of sustainable/green principles in building construction.  This fourth session is final installment where the children use what they have learned from the previous presentations to design their own green dream home.  The children will design their own floor plan and then they call out all of the different green elements that they have incorporated into their dream home.  Then next week we will return and the children will present their dream home designs to the rest of the class.

 

 

Fredericktown Middle School

Posted By bsapp – May 12 | 2011

In April 2010, the Fredericktown Middle School was destroyed by a fire.  The school district and community quickly worked together to get the students back into a temporary learning environment until the school could be re-built. After Fire The remains of the existing building proved to be unusable after extensive forensic testing.  Therefore, the school district grasped the opportunity to build a new middle school at the high school location to create a campus.  This presented the opportunity to share sports facilities and reduce transportation time.

The new Middle school boasts a state-of-the-art science laboratory, computer labs, and a multi-media library.  The gymnasium is designed as a designated FEMA 361 shelter and sized for tournaments.  Students entering this school will have the opportunity to learn with new equipment and furnishings along with cutting edge technology that includes smart boards and computer banks in every classroom as well as ipads available for multi-media learning.  The Main entrance to the school opens into a Commons / cafeteria during the day.  This spacious gathering spot – complete with a double height clerestory for natural daylighting –  functions as overflow space during indoor sporting events and as seating for the adjacent performing arts platform.  A discretely-placed operable partition converts the Performing Arts platform into a bonus classroom during school hours.  The new music room houses all of the required music storage with flexible power supply and acoustics.

Budget, always a concern for school districts, has been a strict compass for this project. The materials have been selected with cost in mind, but foremost, the quality and required maintenance in order to minimize operating costs in the future.  Brick, a durable, environmentally sustainable product will be used for the majority of the building’s cladding, while fiber cement board will be incorporated to provide long-term durability at a lower cost.  The interior is comprised of multiple materials that combine to be environmentally responsible even on a tight budget. Some of these materials include cmu block walls, high-efficiency lighting, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and no-wax resilient flooring.

Soon, the halls will be filled with eager students, curious to explore their new middle school stomping grounds.  This building will usher in the new era of the Fredericktown School District, bringing with it the hope of the future, and the excitement of opportunity.