The Arundel Elementary and Middle School project is a replacement school being performed while the existing school remains occupied. This project is part of the Baltimore City Public Schools Construction and Revitalization Act of 2013. This new construction project features a multi-media library, full-service kitchen, gymnasium, outdoor arena, collaboration space and a dedicated Early Childhood Development Center. The new building will be complete for the spring semester of 2018 and is being constructed as a joint venture between MCN Build and Southway Builders. The new building will sit at the back of the school site, and the area in the front of the building, adjacent to Round Road, will feature landscaping and outdoor learning and play spaces.

Arundel has been designated as the “early learning center” of the community and will include a Judy Center for infants through preschool, a Head Start program, and students in pre-K through second grade. The modernized school building and site will be different from the old schools in many ways. Flexible and adaptable space, learning areas designed for interaction and collaboration, and technology-equipped classrooms will be featured. The new building will be almost twice as large as the current building. At just over 112,000 SF, the building will accommodate up to 636 students. To make the school available as a resource to the surrounding neighborhood, parents, partners and community members can have access to the gym, library and cafeteria after school hours.

Scope of the Project

We wanted to thank to our Partners at  Karon Masonry for referring our team to the general contractor MCN Build and entrusting us with insulation work for this particular job. While on the job site our team of installers used a combination of spray foam and an air barrier to complete the project. An essential criterion for school districts who are building new schools is energy efficiency. Often limited by ever-shrinking budgets together with an increasing demand by their school community, these clients are faced with having to create a positive and modern learning environment for their students.

Although air leakage in these designs plays a significant role in energy inefficiency so too does location. Finding the best school insulation that suits the local climate zone does play a role in achieving a comfortable teaching and learning environment. Depending on the building codes within your local area, the best school insulation can be a matter of using open-cell spray foam insulation, closed-cell spray foam insulation or a combination of both in different areas of the building. Spray foam insulation, is considered a modern material because it helps achieve energy efficiency, air sealing as well as helps to improve indoor air quality.