West Carroll Middle School (Formerly Mount Carroll 7-12 School)

“The biggest concern from the Board is that we want to make it much less expensive than a traditional building.” – School District Superintendent

Grades Served/Capacity: 7-12/350 Total Square Footage: 73,310 Cost: Estimate: $5,160,050 Actual: $5,160,050 Occupancy Date: August 1998 General Contractor: Sjostrom & Sons, Inc. Rockford, Illinois Mechanical Engineer: KJWW Engineering Rock Island, Illinois Civil Engineer: Arnold Lundgren Assoc. Rockford, Illinois

Basic Educational and Program Requirements

• PE & Athletic Lockerrooms • Technical Education Room • Home Economics Room • Kitchen/Cafeteria/Lobby • Band and Choir Room • 2 Computer Labs • Agriculture Lab

• 14 classrooms • Art Classroom • Media Center • Weight Room • Gymnasium • Office Area • Stage

All design solutions for this new school were dictated by cost effectiveness, as described by the school board president: “We don’t have much money to spend, so we have to spend it as economically as possible. We’re not getting frivolous.” Our response provided a new school for a remarkable $62 per square foot, a $10-$15 per square foot savings over “traditional” new facility construction. The most significant savings factor is that most of the school is constructed with a split-face block facade on steel stud/gypsum board walls. Interior walls are also steel stud/gypsum board, relying on Fiberbond wallboard for the corridor walls. This new USG product makes walls two- to three-times stronger than regular gypsum board construction. Plus, it saved the District 20%-25% the price of block while only costing 5%-10% more than regular gypsum board. The cost savings is even more dramatic in locations where block walls would have required a thickened slab. Science and Technology We designed custom lab work stations and computer stations for the 2 new Science Labs because available manufactured casework didn’t provide the flexibility the District was looking for to integrate computers with labwork. Electrical system design provides for future cable and/or satellite dish reception to each classroom. The new school has 2 Computer Labs: one each for computer and business education.

(Clockwise from top) New Main Entrance; Gym; Science Lab Classroom, General Classroom with room partitions. Photos taken by Nels Akerlund