Ocean View Elementary School

Ocean View Elementary School
Serving K-5 with a Maritime Science Focus

The existing Ocean View Elementary School was replaced with a new two-story, kindergarten through 5th grade facility on the same site. The former building and site amenities stayed in operation during construction of the new facility, and were demolished and replaced upon completion.

The design of the new school is characterized by a one-story common use area and a two- story learning communities area. The common use area houses programs that are universal  to all grade levels such as the media center, physical education, cafeteria and gymnatorium. The learning communities area consists of classrooms grouped together by grade level. The first floor houses kindergarten through 1st grade, while the second floor houses 3rd through 5th grade. Each grade level is further broken down into a grade level “house” that consists of general classrooms, small group breakout spaces, science and exploratory labs, prep rooms, storage rooms, and teacher workrooms.

A day-lit school is a major component of the optimum learning and working environment. The natural lighting strategies represent very cost-effective and energy saving techniques employed in modern schools. The major building elements of the new school are oriented on the sites to take advantage of the east-to-west path of the sun.

The Ocean View Elementary School site has a tree preservation area along with existing sand dunes on the north side of the site that the design team preserved. New playfields are located along Mason Creek road and can be utilized by the surrounding Ocean View Community.

Additional sustainable design features used to maximize the energy efficiency of the buildings included:

• Exterior vision and day-lighting windows sized and positioned to create the perfect balance between natural lighting and maximum energy efficiency for the school.
• A highly-insulated building envelope, including appropriate roof insulation and insulated air barrier at exterior walls and low U-Value glazing systems.
• High indoor air quality achieved through the use of low VOC and non-toxic materials.
• Maximize the use of regional and recycled materials throughout the project.
• Light colored roofing materials to reduce solar heat gain and reflect sunlight into windows for daylighting where occurring.
• In all primary-use rooms, occupancy sensors can be used to automatically.

Norfolk Public Schools Modernization

The S.B. Ballard Construction Company’s Project Team was awarded the contract to build five (5) schools for the City of Norfolk, totaling 564,982 SF. This project involved the design and construction of these new facilities at five (5) different locations and demolition of the older existing facilities. The Project Team performed the work in overlapping phases which allowed all five schools to be completed in a 5 year span.

The Public-Private Partnership / Design-Build process provided the platform for the Project Team to engage the public in numerous community meetings throughout Norfolk, VA. The team held forums in each area’s school zone to gather community input and discuss plans for each new school. The Project Team took the  public  input  from  the community meetings and incorporated this feedback into the different programs that were outlined by the City of Norfolk and Norfolk Public Schools (the City and School System). Special attention was also given to the existing design and construction of the surrounding buildings as well as the specific needs of the local neighborhoods and businesses for the new school construction.

The City and School System saved millions of dollars in design, engineering, construction costs, and FF&E costs through economies of scale for design and construction and bulk purchases of furniture and equipment. This approach saved valuable time and money during the development of construction drawings.

Constructability issues were minimized through the collaboration of the design and construction teams and the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM). S. B. Ballard Construction Company successfully managed and coordinated this complex project to build, demolish, and transition students and faculty from the old schools to the new school buildings with no interruption. This detailed, multi-phased success story is a testament to S.B. Ballard Construction Company’s due diligence in working with the local communities, City and School System to learn about their needs and deliver on our commitment.