Neil Armstrong Academy is a Pre-K through 6th grade elementary school that serves the West Valley City, Utah, area in the Granite School District. The school is devoted to the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as its primary platform of instruction. The $17-million school was constructed – using metal products from CENTRIA - to help the Granite School District compete more effectively with charter schools. With more than 750 students and a waiting list of more than 800, it has been extremely well-received by the community it serves.
The state-of-the-art school is the first in Utah to be designed from the ground up to fully support a STEM curriculum, and it provides the type of innovative environment and supporting spaces required to accommodate its unique focus. To ensure the building always functions as a learning tool, its technology infrastructure is easily adaptable to shifting educational modalities. For example, the school features raised flooring throughout all of its classrooms – another first for Utah – to afford plenty of room for computer cables and offer virtually unlimited flexibility for instructors to adapt their learning spaces to the most up-to-date technology tools available.
Neil Armstrong Academy received the Educational Facility Innovation Award of Merit from the Utah chapter of the council of Educational Facility Planners International in 2013. It also has received merit awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Utah Masonry Council.
The architects of Neil Armstrong Academy specified CENTRIA metal panels because of their superior performance, aesthetics, sustainability and durability. CENTRIA products are known for their efficient installation times as well, and with an ambitious schedule in place to complete the building in time for the start of the new school year, they were the ideal choice to keep the project on time.
The CENTRIA Formawall Dimension Series insulated metal wall systems used on the project provide thermal efficiency and moisture control in a single panelized component. Dimension Series insulated metal panels include a factory foamed-in-place core, minimizing insulation gaps, along with a thermal break between the face and the liner. The panels offer superior weather resistance by utilizing pressure equalization along the length of the horizontal joinery.
CENTRIA’s IW Series Concealed Fastener Panels also were selected for the project because they come in a variety of gauges, colors and finishes to match the corresponding Dimension Series panels and blend into walls, eliminating visual breaks. The IW Series panels also feature a common-lock joint design that makes interesting visual effects possible and contributed to the sleek, modern look of the building that the architects desired.
Additionally, CENTRIA’s Profile Series Exposed Fastener Panels, such as the BR5-36 panels chosen for this project, are extremely versatile panels that can be used as exterior or interior walls, roofs and soffits with ribs that run horizontally or vertically. When used for walls, the panels may be inverted. They also may be insulated to add a level of thermal protection.
The architect for this project was Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects of Salt Lake City, UT. The CENTRIA products dealer/installer was Steel Encounters Inc. of Salt Lake City, UT. The contractor was DWA Construction Inc. of Logan, UT. The project measured 95,000 sq. ft.
CENTRIA products used on this project included:
• Formawall® Dimension Series® 2” Horizontal - Square Feet: 10,842; Color: Silver; Finish: Embossed; Coating: Sundance™ AM; Gauge: 22/26
• IW Series Concealed Fastener Panels IW-14A Horizontal - Square Feet: 760; Color: Silver; Finish: Smooth; Coating: Sundance AM; Gauge: 22
• BR5-36 Horizontal Exposed Fastener Panels with MicroSeam Corners - Square Feet: 3,700; Color: Silver; Finish: Smooth; Coating: Sundance AM; Gauge: 22