Prairie Point Middle School
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Owner:
College Community School District
Architect:
OPN Architects
Delivery Method:
General Contractor
Size:
224,000 sq. ft.
Completion Date:
2009
Final Cost:
$24.8 Million
The Prairie Point Middle School project is a 2-story school consisting of 224,000 square feet of finished space. The school features 90 classrooms, 2 art rooms with a kiln, a practice gym AND a full size gym, living skills rooms (code for Home Economics), wrestling room, fitness room and an entire vocal/music wing. The exterior is comprised of multiple materials: brick, burnished block, aluminum metal panels, stainless steel metal siding, ceramic tile and several glass curtainwalls at the stairway locations.
The project posed many challenges for the Knutson team including a water table higher than the finished basement floor, unsuitable soil, the wettest August on record – one month after the project broke ground in July 2007, the 2nd worst winter on record, and the impact of the 2008 Flood. Even with these challenges the project was completed on schedule and without a lost time accident.