Bird was contracted to design and build a new single-storey school in Calgary. Bird’s design-build expertise delivered value-engineered features, including locating the gymnasium at the core of the building, with open corridors around the perimeter, making the school as compact as possible to avoid disruption of the surrounding park. The permanent core structure of this LEED® Silver certified school includes all essential educational elements including a library, administration offices, and modular classrooms. The library features a large glazed operable partition, which allows for the space to be divided in various configurations to meet the immediate needs of the space.

As this was a tight site, construction required extra coordination to provide all of the amenities and site features the school board required within the available space. Bird established and maintained constant amicable contact with the community association, and spent considerable time ensuring expectations were managed and/or met to avoid disruptions to work or added conflicts.

As this school is adjacent to a baseball diamond and park area, and is across the street from an arena, Bird created additional pathways around the site, allowing pedestrian traffic to flow to the park and arena without any persons passing through an active construction site.

The Bird team worked with the Fire Department to determine the location and size/load requirements for a fire truck ramp to allow access to the school in case of emergency. Bird also worked closely with Urban Forestry to save as many trees as possible in the area.