While construction setbacks delayed the opening of the Tuttle Avenue School in Eastport, NY, the wait was well worth it for 450 students, many of whom had been attending classes in portable buildings behind another nearby school. The $28 million, 60,000 sq. ft. facility has achieved LEED gold certification, thanks in part to the incorporation of an Englert Series 2500 metal roof in its design.
The school was originally slated to be open for the start of the 2013-14 school year, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, contractors were forced to pull crews and machinery off the jobsite, delaying progress on the much-anticipated project.
The new school features approximately 25 classrooms and separate wings for each grade level, with the kindergarteners and first-graders downstairs, and the second-graders on the second floor. The library and cafeteria both feature walls made entirely of windows, allowing for plenty of natural light.
The Englert standing seam metal roof system, provided with a Hemlock Green UltraCool paint finish, is both LEED and Energy Star compliant. The school also features geothermal heating and cooling, rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panels and lighting that adjusts to the time of day and amount of light entering the building. Geothermal well water return lines are used for irrigation and other purposes. The 60,000-square-foot school is purported to be the first school in New York to attain the gold.
B&B Sheet Metal, Inc. of Long Island City, New York, was responsible for fabricating and installing more than 21,000 square feet of the 16-inch wide, 22-gauge standing seam panels required for the project, including the custom panels required on circular-shaped library/media center.
Wiedersum Associates Architects of Hauppauge, New York was the lead architect on the project and the Triton Construction Company, in Garden City, New York, built the structure. GPC-4 of Hauppauge, New York served as LEED consultant to the architectural team on concepts including the building's envelope, siting, energy modeling, design elements, material selection and documentation.