LOCATION
Johnston, Iowa

AREA
356,756 GSF

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Johnston High School was necessitated by the growth of 2,431 students in its district since 2000. With over a $72 million budget for this facility, it is currently the largest high school in Iowa, serving up to 1,800 students in grades 10-12. This Johnston Community School District facility is well-equipped with cutting-edge classrooms with retractable walls that combine two classrooms, promoting cross-discipline learning and productive group work. The school also features a 1,200-seat auditorium for the performing arts.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• Selected to receive the Alliant Energy, Black Hills Energy, and MidAmerian Energy Company’s Excellence in Energy Efficient Design award based on 61% kBTU savings when compared to the program baseline.
• 2019 ACEC Engineering Excellence Honor Award and Best in Category (Energy) winner.
• The building is conditioned using displacement ventilation with the exception of the administration and athletic department wings, which utilize a water-cooled variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system.
• A geothermal bore field is used to transfer heating to and from the earth as part of the building conditioning process.
• The entire building includes an automated fire suppression system, including a wet-pipe sprinkler system.
• The facility was provided with a complete voice/data communications structured wiring system, including telecommunications spaces and pathways, equipment racks and cabinets, telecommunications cables, termination hardware, cable management hardware, and telecommunications jacks.
• Electronic security system provisions for this project include access control and video surveillance in selected areas, head-end equipment upgrades and consolidation, and integration with existing district-wide access control and video management systems.
• Each classroom and conference room has an Extron Digital PlenumVault system with four inputs. In addition to the PlenumVault system, each room has an HD projector.

Learn more about our additional k-12 education work here. 

Photography credit: Kessler Photography