[With Video] Delivering equity through P3 school design

When we were hired on the Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) Blueprint Schools Program, more than half of the 208 schools in the district were more than 50 years old. Needing to address their aging infrastructure, overcrowding, and deferred maintenance challenges, PGCPS embarked on the ambitious undertaking to speed the delivery of new schools. The district chose to use a full-scope alternative financing model to design, build, finance, and maintain a multi-school, K-12 construction program. It was the first public school system in the US to do so.

Equity needed for better learning outcomes

One of the goals for PGCPS was equity. To improve learning outcomes, it needed to reverse the declining quality of education facilities from decades of disinvestment. Its ambitious plan was to complete the design and construction of multiple new schools in half of the time of traditionally funded projects. To make an impact in the large system, it planned to open six new schools.

The PGCPS Blueprint Schools Program was financed through a P3 (public-private partnership) delivery model and included a 30-year maintenance contract with Honeywell. In the P3 model, our client on the project was Gilbane Building Company, the design-build contractor for the district’s six schools. It required the team to design and construct all 6 schools in 2.5 years, which was much faster than the usual 7-year process for the school system. Ideally, the P3 school design approach enables the district to rapidly update its school buildings.

Our teams have delivered P3 schools in Canada for decades. Our experience poised us for success in translating P3 school design to the US market. Now, with the Blueprint Schools Program, we’ve gained further insights into successful approaches to P3 school design in the US. Many schools need replacement and many school systems will look to Prince George’s County as a model.

How did we keep the project on the fast track while promoting design excellence?

With such a short timeline for so much space, how could we tackle this P3 school design project most efficiently? Were there ways to leverage technology to help us with repetitive elements to save time? And how could we promote and preserve research-based design while meeting the demands for cost and schedule? Understanding that the architecture of each building needed to be very similar, could we still give each campus its own character and personality?

How did we do it? We’ll explain below.

Virtual collaboration with a huge team

We assembled an all-star team of our education designers from five offices. It included architects, interior designers, building engineers, lighting designers, civil engineers, project managers, graphic designers, and others. We developed virtual collaboration capability before the pandemic, so we had some tools in place for working remotely on this P3 school design.

But this was a new type of undertaking. We assigned a leader for each building type and a leader for coordinating each discipline. So, rather than just a vertical team structure, there was a significant horizontal structure too. We used remote work technology to increase our communication and coordination across the large-scale project.

Leveraging technology for designers and builders

There was a lot of design and documentation work to do on a tight timeline. So, we looked for efficiencies and technology applications to accelerate the P3 school design process. The unique project requirements for P3 school design and the composition of the team required us to think differently. We sought out alternative approaches to information sharing, coordination, and documentation. Some of these approaches have since become more routine across more teams and project types.

We automated the publication of design models and revisions from multiple disciplines to the 3D model in BIM360 on a regular schedule. And we resolved any clash issues, toggling models for each discipline on and off, in weekly cross-discipline coordination meetings. This proved a fast and lean approach to coordination.

We harnessed the power of Microsoft Teams with specialty channels reflective of the scale and responsibilities of the various school teams. This allowed all of our disciplines or subject matter champions to manage specialized communications within smaller groups. But it didn’t limit the entire project team’s access to that information.

We took a unique approach to digital modeling, creating five models in Revit for the design of six school buildings. Our team used one 3D model to draw two of the four prototype two-story school buildings. We created another “linked” model for the other two prototype schools. Each of the four-story schools has its own model. And we created a fifth model for shared details used across all six schools. The shared details model provided a kit of parts we utilized on all the schools including UL ratings, envelope, ceiling, stair, elevator, expansion joint, partition details, casework, and gymnasium elements. We also adopted one set of specifications for all six schools, which ensured equity in materials and content at each building. This approach saved time during documentation.

We also worked with the builder’s team on customizing the construction phase management software. Why? It needed to handle six project sites with six construction teams within a single project environment for this P3 school design project.

Keeping design at the forefront

We started with a strong “village” design concept that was efficient, aesthetically pleasing, and supported by the district. We looked for creative ways to preserve the original design concept while reducing scope or cost when required.

With rising materials pricing, we had to find ways to save on costs. For example, where we might have designed with natural materials such as wood, we turned to wall covering materials with a wood-like appearance to create the same effect. Elsewhere, we found alternative durable flooring solutions within the budget that still matched the palette.

We built up trust with our builder over time by bringing ideas to the table and contributing to the conversation on reducing the scope and finding value when necessary. That enabled us to push back and advocate for elements that we know make a qualitative difference. For example, we advocated for lighting systems that were customized to the space type rather than a more generic one-light-fits-all approach. The builder accepted our proposal, and we chose lighting schemes to enhance various spaces.

Layering storytelling, color, and local flavor

The team needed to deliver multiple building designs at the same time as one P3 school design project. But when built, each school needed to serve a unique, individual community. Four of the buildings would have nearly identical architecture. How could we make each one feel like a unique school?

We used nature as an inspiration for storytelling to give each school a distinct personality through the colors, materials, graphics, and artwork—both inside and outside the schools. We developed a nature-based color palette for each campus. We used color to tell a story around water, forests, the night sky, and the earth at each of the four prototype campuses.

At Hyattsville Middle School, the day sky was our inspiration. The meadow defined the colors at Colin L. Powell Academy. Nature tied all the elements together, but the different themes at each campus gave us a direction to develop a unique expression. We carried the themes through the color of materials but also through the signage and graphics used in the main entry and throughout the common areas. Then, we gave each campus some local flavor at its core. We enlisted a local artist to create a mural in each school dining room expressing the theme in their own style.

Delivering value today and into the future

The Blueprint Schools Program is designed to deliver value. The school district estimates that it will save $200 million in escalation charges for construction by opting for this fast-track P3 school design process. It also estimates savings of $260 million in deferred maintenance.

Every dollar saved can be invested to support the schools’ educational mission.

A fascinating case study

We are anxious to do post-occupancy evaluations with the schools. We are really interested in comparing responses from each community. We’re especially curious to track the experience at the four (largely) identical new schools occupied at the same time.

It’s a rare situation that should provide excellent insights.

Designing for equity in education

PGCPS faces growing student enrollment alongside aging schools. Some of the oldest PGCPS buildings had issues ranging from structural integrity to aging alarm systems and obsolete heating and cooling systems. The Blueprint Schools Program addresses the district’s aging and crowded facilities.

We’re excited that we delivered new, highly functional and safe schools for PGCPS through this P3 school design process. These new schools, designed to LEED Silver standard, contribute to establishing equity in education in Prince George’s County. The project exceeded local economic and inclusion goals by engaging diverse, local businesses. A result is that 34.8 percent of contracts were awarded to Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs). And that includes $65 million awarded to MBE businesses in the County.

Now complete, phase one of the Blueprint Schools Program opened 8,000 new seats for students at six new schools. Among many state-of-the-art design features, the new schools feature media labs, black box theatres, and maker spaces, which expand the variety of educational and experiential opportunities for students. We believe the Blueprint Schools Program can be a model for US school systems looking to maximize value and design quality on a demanding timeline in their school modernization programs.