As the District and community celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Chartiers Valley Middle School and High School, smiles of the young and old beamed with pride and hearts were filled with happiness from participants as they shared and discussed the many images of their soon to be constructed schools that surrounded them at this event. Chartiers Valley School District.
“The architects worked collaboratively with our district to design these two tremendous facilities for our students, and they have produced these images and this animation to show all of us, our community and the region, what our vision will look like as it becomes a reality.”
“This process has been inclusive from the beginning,” said Matt Hansen, AIA, associate, project manager and designer for the Chartiers Valley projects. “These images and this animation produced in-house are an excellent representation of the innovation and talent that IKM brings to every project.”
As design decisions become more and more detailed and as the architectural design of the project progresses, the vision truly becomes a reality. The architectural images are developed from the design documents and material selections made by the team.
“With the addition of the animation software as a tool in our office, we can take our 3D BIM Revit models and turn them into these wonderful video animations,” said Hansen. “As architects, we can see these possibilities as the projects progress, now our tools allow others to see them as well. Our illustrator, Adam Warner, has worked diligently to produce the virtual reality you see here today. These represent the hard work of everyone on our team.”
“The illustrations help to paint the picture for those who cannot imagine what the new school will look like. They are reflective of the choices that the administration has made in relation to material, color, and so on,” said Joel Bernard, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, principal in charge of the project. “If we are able to take photos from the same vantage points as the renderings you will be amazed at how closely they resemble the finished product, when it is completed in another year.”
IKM staff on the project that participated in the groundbreaking included (R to L): Joel Bernard, AIA, LEED AP, Principal; Lee Fenton, AIA, LEED AP, Principal with BLRB consulting architects; Daniel Gowin, graduate architect; Allison Wertz, AIA, Project Architect; Matt Hansen, AIA, Project Manager/Designer; Greg Coni, CPH®; Adam Warner, Architectural Illustrator. As a side note, the hard hats for the event were all custom art pieces from the Chartiers Valley High School fine arts department. The theme of their art work was “change how you see, see how you change.”
Having been selected as the architects for the design of renovations and new construction of the Chartiers Valley High School and Middle School project, IKM has been working with the school district and members of the community to create a vision for success.
As the project moved forward, the design team set up shop at Chartiers Valley High School for a series of design charettes and departmental conferencing sessions. The IKM team worked with stakeholders representing more than 70 parents, students, community members, teachers, administrators and school board members in multiple “collaborative discovery” planning and design workshops to learn what was important and to develop a list of guiding principles. The sessions focused on how to make the middle and high school environments support a 21st century pedagogy and inspire success for all students in the district.
Along with the IKM-led collaborative on-site meetings, the Design Team and the School Design Advisory Teams toured schools in several neighboring districts and a few in the Baltimore/DC area that embraced similar principles and philosophies to discover best practices.
The groundbreaking event represents another significant milestone in the project.
“The animation IKM created really brings the project to life and helps all stakeholders visualize the reality of our new Middle School and High School,” said Dr. White.