During the past year, general contractor Findorff started work on more than $300 million in large-scale renovations for one of Wisconsin's largest K-12 school districts. That work includes $70 million in each of the district's four comprehensive high schools, significant improvements to a smaller community-based high school, and the construction of a new elementary school to improve structure equity in the district. The global design firm DLR Group has been seeing more community and school-district interest in adaptive reuse, specifically in transforming vacant retail, warehouse, and other large-volume spaces into educational environments, according to K-12 Education Design Leader Todd Ferking, AIA. While new construction comprises a sizable portion of AEC firms' K-12 work, renovations and adaptive reuse are often the preferred modernization options for school districts and municipalities. "The majority of our K-12 work is still very renovation heavy. Much of the K-12 infrastructure isn't feasible to replace, nor is replacement always necessary," says Vaughn Dierks, AIA, LEED AP, Partner in Charge at Wold Architects + Engineers. One of his firm's recent design examples is White Bear Lake (Minn.) High School, a reuse of the original core buildings with major interior reconfigurations, new additions, and systems replacements.
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