Project Profile: Carroll County Career and Technology Center

From completely replacing MEP systems throughout an active school to installing automobile lifts and vertical band saws to preserving practice space for a marching band, the Carroll County Career and Technology Center (CCCTC) project included a dizzying array of requirements.
The $74 million project by the Carroll County Public School District was designed by Hord Coplan Macht Architects, to transform an overcrowded, 1971 school into a modern training center for 24 career programs, ranging from biomedical science, culinary arts and interactive media production to heavy equipment technology, collision repair, mechanical engineering, electrical construction, welding, HVAC and carpentry.
“This project involved installing a lot of specialized equipment,” said Brian Wood, Project Manager for Gilbane.
Crews had to install more than two dozen automotive lifts, large lathes and laser engravers, CNC machines, extensive welding hoods, a full commercial kitchen, medical equipment and a heavy-duty crane, capable of lifting 100 tons.
“There was a lot of heavy equipment that had to be rigged into place, including a six-color printing press that had to be rigged up the second floor,” said Ellen Becker, Project Manager for Carroll County Schools.
Furthermore, the project had to be completed while the school remained fully operational.
After completing extensive relocation of utilities onsite, crews constructed a 98,000-square-foot addition, then dug into a complex, phased renovation of existing school space.
“It was like a chess game,” Becker said.
For each phase, crews systematically relocated select trades programs, renovated their space and moved them back in. In the process, they also built out two additions, totaling more than 18,000 square feet, to provide expanded facilities to the heavy equipment, masonry and carpentry programs.
They also executed a complete, phased replacement of the school’s MEP systems.
“That took a lot of coordination, a lot of investigation to ensure that you weren’t cutting AC to an adjacent classroom that was active,” Becker said.
Crews had to contend with scattered, original electrical panels that fed unexpected circuits, redesign some mechanical equipment that wouldn’t fit within the roof structure, and ensure that MEP work didn’t impair operations of the school’s public address or telecommunication systems.
Civil engineering and site work for the project weren’t overly complicated, but still presented some challenges, said Steve McCalmont, Principal with MK Consulting Engineers.
To contain costs, the team kept the project footprint small and satisfied expanded stormwater management requirements with a single pond, said McCalmont, who was a 1977 graduate of the CCCTC drafting program.
The team also successfully tackled two unusual requirements.
First, “the city of Westminster has very strict water allocation limitations,” he said. “Because we were adding facilities, there was a water allocation balance that had to be worked out. We ended up putting in water saving fixtures in the Career and Tech Center that offset the increased usage to allow the city to permit the project to move forward.”
Second, the team satisfied a unique need for the parking lot located between CCCTC and the adjacent high school.
“The high school needed that parking lot to be maintained with minimal islands because they use that lot for their marching band practices,” McCalmont said. “It was a challenge, but we worked out how to preserve a nice, big, flat area for band practice. You have to accommodate everyone.”