Design-Build Delivery Model Takes Prince George’s County to School

Like most school districts across the country, Prince George’s County in Maryland has seen a demand in recent years for new school buildings. Growing student enrollment, a middle school seat deficit and rapidly aging school buildings contributed to this problem. The second-largest school system in the state, Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) has the second-oldest buildings in Maryland, with more than half its 208 schools more than 50 years old.

How has the district responded? Most school districts build a few new schools here and there and gradually integrate them into their system. But PGCPS embarked on a unique private-public partnership (P3) project that took a design-build fast track and allowed them to build six new schools totaling 8,000-plus seats in 30 months through a program known as Blueprint Schools.

“It marks the beginning of a new era of school construction in Prince George’s County and offers a shining example of the educational and economic opportunities made possible through this unique public-private partnership,” notes County Council Chair Calvin Hawkins. “We are excited for this historic moment.”

PGCPS is the first public school system in the country to leverage an alternative financing model to design, build, finance and maintain a multi-school construction program. A consortium of Prince George’s County Education and Community Partners (PGCECP) supports the Blueprint Schools initiative.

“The Blueprint Schools initiative accelerates the construction of new schools to fully support 21st century teaching and learning,” says Dr. Monica Goldson, PGCPS chief executive officer. “As a school system, we have made tremendous strides in our long-range facility planning to advance from primarily emergency repair projects toward a major modernization program that addresses the needs of our oldest schools.”

Mike Ricketts, senior project executive at Gilbane Building Company, the project’s general contractor, explains: “In a typical P3, there’s a financing element, a construction element and possibly an operation or maintenance element. We provided the financing, and we did the design and construction.”

The development team is required to maintain the physical condition of the six schools for 30 years. And lower costs for construction are built in due to a cap on future cost escalation.

Design-Build Is Fast

“The design-build delivery model is a very fast process compared to the traditional design-bid-build,” continues Ricketts. “The county publicized that in the normal process, it takes anywhere from eight to 12 years to design a school, bid it and construct it—it’s a lengthy process. The whole idea behind the public-private partnership was to streamline that process and do the construction on a faster timeline.”

One of the nation’s largest school districts, PGCPS broke ground on the schools in June 2021, beginning with the new Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights followed by a new Adelphi middle school; replacements for Drew-Freeman, Hyattsville and Kenmoor middle schools; and a new K-8 academy in Fort Washington, for delivery by summer 2023.

The Colin L. Powell K-8 Academy opened to students on Nov. 27, 2023, and held its ribbon cutting on Feb. 21, 2024. The additional five schools—Sonia Sotomayor Middle School at Adelphi, Drew-Freeman Middle School, Hyattsville Middle School, Kenmoor Middle School and Walker Mill Middle School—opened in September 2023.

The PGCECP consortium consists of Fengate Asset Management and Gilbane Development Company (developers), Gilbane Building Company (design-build contractor), Stantec (designer and architect of record) and Honeywell Building Technologies (services provider).

 

 

 

Fengate is an alternative investment manager focused on infrastructure, private equity and real estate strategies with offices in Toronto and Oakville, Ontario, Canada, as well as Houston. Gilbane Development Company is the project development, financing and ownership arm of Gilbane Building Company, a full-service construction firm providing preconstruction, general contracting, construction management and design-build services through more than 45 offices worldwide. One of their specialties is building K-12 schools. Stantec is an engineering and architecture firm with offices around the world. Based in Charlotte, N.C., Honeywell delivers solutions that include control technologies for buildings and industry. As part of its role on the consortium, Honeywell will assume physical maintenance of the six schools for 30 years.

“As the design-builder, we hired consultants to do the actual design,” adds Ricketts. “Stantec was the primary architect for the project, and there were subconsultants under them as well.”

According to Michael Scarani, project manager and senior associate at Stantec, structural engineering responsibilities on the project were split between foundations and superstructure due to the pre-engineered components. The building systems were designed with BlueScope Buildings of Rainsville, Ala., a manufacturer of prefabricated steel structures, along with MP-Squared Structural Engineers of Madison, Wis., contracted directly to Gilbane. Local engineer Leuterio Thomas LLC designed foundations and miscellaneous metals. Mechanical, plumbing, electrical and fire-protection engineering were provided by Setty & Associates of Washington, D.C. Stantec provided civil engineering services.

To meet financial limitations, Gilbane proposed the use of pre-engineered building components. “The structural systems ended up being a hybrid of pre-engineered and conventional framing systems, designed and provided by BlueScope Buildings,” explains Scarani. “Certain roof areas are sloped, 5-inch insulated metal roof panels on z-girt framing, while others are conventionally framed flat roofs. Exterior wall systems are primarily 3-inch insulated metal roof panels on z-girt framing.”

 

Procuring Materials Faster and Easier

The design-build aspect of the project facilitated procuring materials, according to Scarani. “Early packages for foundations and major equipment were issued well in advance of the permit drawings or final construction drawings to meet the construction schedule,” he says. “The team worked with the County AHJ (Authorities Having Jurisdiction) to obtain early permits for site work, foundations and structural steel to keep construction work progressing even as design continued. The project and the start date of construction occurred at the height of the Covid pandemic, when materials and equipment delivery schedules were very unpredictable. Long-lead items were identified and prioritized early to expedite design and place early orders.”

“We had to create early release packages to get material on time, and a lot of lead times got extended for materials,” adds Ricketts. “We had to order the steel for the buildings in phases. We released bar joists first, because they normally had a 16-week turnaround, and we were getting 48- to 52-week turnarounds. As soon as we had a concept plan and knew what our loads were going to be, we had to release our order for bar joists to get them in on time. Structural steel was released early, and then the exterior skin that clads the building as well as the roofing—that was the third component. Through those early release packages, we were able to maintain our schedule.”

Despite the novelty of the cutting-edge project, other challenges arose. “The fast schedule, budget constraints and difficulties of material availability required the entire team to agree at each step,” recalls Scarani. “Everyone had to anticipate the difficulties each other faced. Design-build trade partners—as well as Honeywell—attended every design meeting to help inform the team regarding system, equipment and material selections that could be acquired and installed within the requisite timeframe. At one point, the electrical contractor described their proposed method for prefabricating electrical system components, which shed light on the difficulties of field changes to the designers and builders.”

Scarani also says there were “regular meetings with county code authorities to inform them of pending submissions and review the status of their internal approvals. Any hangups were immediately addressed.”

“We were building six schools simultaneously, so we had to make sure the subcontractor community had the capacity to build multiple schools,” adds Ricketts. “We spent a lot of time analyzing subcontractors’ ability to work on one school, two schools, three schools, four schools, five or six. Not every contractor was awarded all six schools. We made decisions in our purchasing process based on manpower, ability to deliver and price. Through that matrix, we were able to decide as to which subcontractors were best suited for the work. We paired people up and ‘divided and conquered’ in the subcontractor market.”

 

Prototypes Helped

According to Ricketts, “One thing that enabled us to accelerate construction was that we had four prototypical units; they were basically the same building with different exterior coloration and interior finishes. The fifth building was a hybrid. Part of it was the same as the other four prototypes: the gymnasium and cafeteria wing. And then the academic wing was slightly different. The last building—our sixth building—was the largest: a K8. For that particular school, the interior design, classroom sizes and layouts were the same as the other schools. So we were able to duplicate the design elements for each one of the school projects.”

The new multi-story school buildings provide a learning environment for more than 1,200 students each. The schools feature grade-specific academic wings; STEM or STEAM labs; media labs; production studios; performance stages; indoor gymnasiums; and music, band and dance rooms. Each school features an outdoor environmental classroom with a canopy, student desks and planting beds. “Our design of these innovative learning environments reflects the needs of a diverse student population in Maryland,” notes Scarani. “We were able to create engaging education spaces that feel connected, yet each offers their own unique aesthetic.”

All the schools are designed to meet LEED Silver equivalent standards. Sustainability elements include tubular skylights and large windows to increase natural daylight and biophilic design principles. Stantec installed Solatubes to bring daylight down into interior spaces without windows.

Along with this, several measures were incorporated to address indoor air quality in the schools. These include Merv 13 filters and UV-C lights at the coils in the air handlers, UV-C ceiling troffers locally distributed in areas such as toilet rooms and locker rooms, and a scheduled controls sequence for building flush-out before and after school occupancy. They also installed ventilation systems to reduce the spread of viruses.

 

 

And There’s More

This innovative bundled delivery model—the first of its kind in the United States—brought design equity to PGCPS and advanced local economic inclusion goals through use of diverse and local business. PGCPS expects to realize savings in deferred maintenance and construction costs.

The project features a commitment to community investment, including a $1 million endowed fund supporting scholarships, student internships, mentoring opportunities and apprenticeships valued at $4.7 million. In addition, at least 30 percent of total eligible costs of the program will go toward minority-owned businesses, community-based enterprises and small businesses, furthering the creation of county-based jobs. Approximately $174 million in savings is expected in deferred maintenance and construction costs, compared to a traditional construction procurement model.

“This partnership is creating good-paying construction jobs, investment in the local economy for years to come and will result in state-of-the-art, innovative learning environments for students and families,” says Paul Choquette, executive vice president of Gilbane Building Company.

Looking back, Scarani says, “This was an extremely challenging project to execute. Overcoming the challenges has made everyone look back with pride at what we achieved and the relationships we built. This can be a successful model when everyone considers the effort involved, the decisions that need to be made quickly and the resources required.”

“It’s a good process for school systems to use to have financing put together,” adds Ricketts. “It also unburdens their staff from the long-term maintenance. You end up with a building at the end of the 30-year period that’s better than a building that wasn’t maintained in the same way. It gives school systems the opportunity to increase the number of schools they can build at any given time. You get a very good product.” 

 

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