Metal ceilings highlight new middle school and high school fieldhouse
Recent economic growth in Cushing, Okla., gave the community an opportunity to improve its schools and build for the future. With more than 1,800 students enrolled in the Cushing Public School District, the district built a new middle school and high school fieldhouse to meet its current and future needs. Boynton Williams & Associates (BWA) Architects, Tulsa, Okla., designed both facilities and helped raise awareness and support for funding the $30 million construction projects.
The 140,000-square-foot middle school serves the 600 students currently enrolled, and can grow to accommodate 200 more. The school has 40 classrooms, band and choir rooms, media center, practice and competition gyms, interior and exterior courtyards, indoor and outdoor art instruction areas, a storm shelter and state-of-the-art keyless security.
Educational spaces at the middle school are designated into a center for fifth and sixth graders and another for seventh and eighth graders. Koln Knight, Cushing Public School District’s superintendent, notes it’s basically two schools in one. “It’s a great design. By moving to the center concept, our children will start out together and they will go through their entire educational experience at Cushing Tigers.”
Middle school students will continue through to the newly expanded high school, with a 6,000-square-foot football fieldhouse addition, which increases its total square footage to 194,000. The new facility supports up to 80 players with a football locker room, coaches’ offices, training room, video room and storage.
Dayna Boynton, principal of BWA Architects, wanted a ceiling system that could “create interest, while keeping the majority of the spaces open to the structure.”
Jim Frasca, district sales manager for Chicago-based
ROCKFON LLC, says the company was capable of achieving Cushing schools’ performance and aesthetic requirements, as well as the timeline and budget. “Collaborating with the building team, we delivered the schools’ ceiling suspension systems, open plenum metal ceiling system, curved and straight specialty metal ceiling panels and perimeter trim,” he says.
Lambert Construction Co., Stillwater, Okla., was the construction manager for both projects, and worked closely with BWA Architects. R.L.S. Construction LLC, Tulsa, the ceiling installer, coordinated its schedule with Lambert and was able to complete the ROCKFON ceiling systems installation during summer break. “The ceiling systems installed rather easily,” notes Rick Smith, owner and president of R.L.S. Construction. “With four people and ROCKFON’s system, we were able to meet the scheduling and the budget. It worked really well and looks good, too.”
D&E Supply LLC, Tulsa, provided R.L.S. Construction with ROCKFON’s metal ceiling systems. RLS created nine curving clouds with ROCKFON’s CurvGrid one-directional, 2- by 6-foot curved aluminum ceiling panels with a perforated dot pattern and an Acoustex backer for a 0.70 Noise Reduction Coefficient
(NRC), promoting quiet, comfortable learning spaces in the middle school’s corridors and library. The 1,392 square feet of CurvGrid panels were inserted in ROCKFON’s factory-curved suspension system.
Frasca says ROCKFON’s patented, primary carrier system reduces labor-intensive hanger drops while concealing the suspension from view and creating a neat, ribbon-like appearance. “Accentuating these curves, we finished the aluminum panels and perimeter trim in standard Black and Satin Silver, plus a custom Tiger Orange,” he says.
The Tiger Orange ceiling accents were used in the corridors, commons, cafeteria, library and administration areas. The middle school library features 400 square feet of ROCKFON’s ceiling systems including CurvGrid metal ceiling panels, Infinity Perimeter Trim and CubeGrid open plenum ceiling systems, all finished in the same black, silver and orange colors. To accommodate light fixtures, air diffusers and security cameras, while masking pipes, ducts and wires in the plenum, CubeGrid’s 2-by-2 open cells are formed with Chicago Metallic 1200 seismic 15/16-inch suspension systems, and are finished on all sides.
Throughout the high school fieldhouse, R.L.S. Construction installed more than 600 ROCKFON Planostile 2- by 2-foot galvanized steel ceiling panels with lay-in reveal edges into the Chicago Metallic 4000 Tempra 9/16-inch suspension system. Both panels and grid were finished in Satin Silver.
Cushing Middle School and High School Field House, Cushing, Okla.
Award: 2015 Construction Excellence Bronze Award in the ceilings category for the South region from Ceilings and Interior Systems Construction Association (CISCA)
Owner: Cushing Public School District, Cushing
Architect: Boynton Williams & Associates (BWA) Architects, Tulsa, Okla.
Construction manager: Lambert Construction Co., Stillwater, Okla.
Ceiling systems distributor: D&E Supply LLC, Tulsa
Ceiling systems installer: R.L.S. Construction LLC, Tulsa
Metal ceilings: ROCKFON LLC, Chicago, www.rockfon.com