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Owings Mills Learning Center

The Owings Mills Learning Center is a one-of-a-kind project in Baltimore County and features excellent roadside visibility that generated a high volume of consumer usage for its two occupants following its early spring official grand opening. The six-story, 120,000-square foot building overlooking I-795 has been designed to house a new branch of the Baltimore County Public Library as well as an expanded location for the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Positioned on the first two levels of the structure, within 40,000 square feet of space, is the 19th and largest branch of the Baltimore County Public Library; it is stocked with a collection of nearly 115,000 items and features individual study rooms, 70 computers public use, a magazine lounge, an early learning activity center, teen area, a café, and a large, quiet study area. The library is also wired for complementary Wi-Fi service and contains a community room that will be shared by CCBC.

CCBC has leased the remaining 80,000 square feet and occupies floors three through six. Upon completion of the Learning Center, CCBC relocated from its current space on Painters Mill Road, which operates as an Extension Center to the main campus in Catonsville. The new space is approximately three times larger than the current facility, features 27 separate classrooms and specialized science laboratories, and provides resources to allow CCBC to expand its existing enrollment of 5,000 students.

The post-tension concrete Owings Mills Learning Center has a complex skin of glass curtain wall, architectural pre-cast concrete, EIFS and architectural metal panel skin, faces a public plaza within Metro Centre at Owings Mills, and is connected to the existing eight-level parking garage. The project has been constructed to achieve LEED-Silver certification via its partial green roof designed to improve both air and water quality and mitigate heat loss and gain, use of low VOC materials, use of recycled materials, regionally manufactured materials fabricated within 500 miles of its location, and all wood used on the project is FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council)-certified.

Matapeake Middle School

The new 107,000 square foot middle school constructed on Kent Island on the western end of Queen Anne’s County, serves as the gateway to Maryland’s scenic Eastern Shore. The school’s feature entry design is based on the nautical symbolism of a ship’s hull.  The building uses a geothermal heat-pump technology as its heating and cooling system. The capacity of the new middle school is 800 students in grades 6 to 8. Initially, up to 500 middle school students are proposed in grades 6 to 8 with 300 ninth-grade students in a separate academy on the second floor.

A clear circulation system (keel of a boat) easily understood by students, parents, community and visitors is the main design feature of the project. It serves as the lobby for the main public-use spaces (physical-education suite with stage, cafeteria and music suite) and provides the link between the public spaces and the educational areas. The administration area is situated centrally at the main entrance to oversee the access of all students, parents and visitors to the school and main corridor.

Architectural features include exposed painted structural steel, complex rubber flooring at the corridors which had a critical humidity requirement that mandated heating the school even in July to reach the required percentage of humidity for proper installation, extensive glass and specialty lighting. Site work for the project was made more complex due to the proximity of this project to the adjacent occupied elementary school which shares the site.

Albin O. Kuhn Library at UMBC

This 7-story 120,000 square foot, concrete-framed tower abuts the existing library with floor tie-ins at the 1st and 2nd levels. Construction included a 25,000 square foot renovation of selected portions of the existing library and moving all documents into the new tower.

The building exterior consisted of a complex system of pre-cast and curtain wall with granite accents. The interior has extensive millwork, terrazzo floors and ornamental stainless steel and glass rails. The building was completely internet ready with in-slab raceways to accommodate any future data cabling modifications.

This project required phased construction and significant pedestrian traffic control to allow continued safe and uninterrupted functioning of the existing library during construction.

Highlandtown Elementary School

At first thought, renovating a 24,000 sq. ft. building and adding a 50,000 sq. ft., three story, masonry bearing addition to an unoccupied school would not appear to be challenging to a firm which had constructed more than 70 other schools. However that changed, with the acceptance of an alternate to reduce the aggressive 18 month project schedule to 12 months – with a caveat that all work must be completed on time regardless of unforeseen conditions.

While gutting the structure of its existing finishes and equipment, it was found that the concrete topping installed under the wood floors was unstable in areas; roofing tar had bled through structural cracks in the concrete roof, a roof parapet wall was found to be unsound; deteriorated plaster on the exterior walls was judged to contain mold or provide an environment for its future growth; unidentified lead paint was present on the window sills, panels and trim; a City water line leak caused the lower level to flood and created a cave-in under an embankment where the foundation for the boiler room areaway was to be built; and the scheduled main switchgear location did not meet code only after installation of the equipment which then needed to be relocated.

Among the many unanticipated challenges was the instance where, after the new interior masonry walls were completed, the School system realized that several additional drinking fountains were required outside the gym; necessitating cutting of the concrete floors and newly completed walls to install plumbing for these fountains.

The interior first level courtyard is filled with a stone base and shredded rubber mulch to create a safe play yard for the children. These materials needed to be shot into place after all of the surrounding walls had been constructed.

This important brick masonry building could not be re-constructed for a reasonable cost in today’s economy and the design of the new addition so closely matches the brick work of the historic structure that the casual observer is challenged to ascertain where the existing structure ends and the new addition begins. Despite the magnitude of unforeseen conditions, its location directly adjacent an occupied community center, and the quantity and complexity of delays, the school was finished on time for the beginning of the school year.

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School

The project was awarded as a total gut and rehab of the 220,000 square foot school, originally contracted as being vacant. Due to the wishes of the faculty and students, the building was later continuously occupied throughout construction. This major renovation project is located on a tightly congested urban site, completely surrounded by adjacent academic buildings, major thoroughfares and the students and staff who were on site throughout the project.

Work areas include the gymnasium, auditorium, natatorium, classrooms, cafeteria/kitchen, academic labs and tech science classrooms, administrative offices and support areas. The existing HVAC and plumbing systems have been completely replaced, modifications were made to the existing sprinkler system, the existing roof was removed and a new roof installed. A new main entry and administrative wing was created from the former basement by removing the existing wall on Orleans Street and installing a new curtain wall and high efficiency window system providing natural light to the feature lobby with its substantially upgraded finishes and a massive Fritz tile floor highlighting the school’s colors.

New interior masonry walls have been constructed, extensive laboratory and science casework has been installed, and the technology upgrades enable the school’s curriculum to meet the needs of Dunbar’s health professional partnering agreement with Johns Hopkins Hospital. Hazardous materials removal, originally to be contracted by the owner, was added to CAM’s contract, with little if any extension to the contract completion. Work was completed directly adjacent occupied classrooms with no interruption to the curriculum.

The newly renovated school contains more than 50 laboratories, classrooms, and collegiate-style lecture halls for 900 students and faculty, a newly created health suite, resource center library, café, with full commercial kitchen, department offices and meeting spaces and storage areas – most of which have finishes highlighting the school’s colors and spectacular views of the City. Of particular interest is the placement of the offices, curved walls, and exposed beams which are used as architectural elements and feature flooring and ceiling details.

The contractual change from a vacant to occupied environment was accommodated by CAM’s forces installing temporary partitions, a covered interior walkway which re-routed internal passageways, a temporary fire alarm system, temporary power and temporary lights. Despite many owner initiated changes and additions to the contract, once again CAM’s work was completed on time with temporary occupancy granted ahead of schedule to allow for the faculty and staff to set up for the school year.

This school is of such great importance to the Baltimore City Public School System that the ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by Governor Martin O’Malley, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Mayor Sheila Dixon, Dr. Andres Alonso, CEO of the School System, and both national and local heads of the teacher’s union. The keynote ribbon cutting address was given by John’s Hopkins Hospital’s famed pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Cardin. The change to the school is so substantive that many of the alumnae attending the ribbon cutting ceremony literally could not find their way around the school they had once attended.

Agora Data Center

CAM was hired to perform a major floor insertion, as well as provide significant new utility service to the building and Electrical and HVAC for a New Data Center in a historic reading room in Mt Vernon@ 702 Cathedral. Careful attention to detail was maintained, and extensive plaster restoration was necessary due to water damage. This was ever more critical considering we were tasked with inserting a new floor into the existing two story volume, thus making the crown molding, that was previously high in the air, suddenly be nearly within arm’s reach, and a major feature of the new work space.

Annapolis Data Center (Comptroller of Maryland)

The Annapolis Data Center (“ADC”)  is home to the Office of the Comptroller’s Information Technology Division, amongst other occupants and functions. This secure DGS facility provides mainframe computer services for its parent agency, the Comptroller of Maryland, as well as many other State agencies. The ADC’s operational costs are fully reimbursed from its customers via charges for computer usage and services rendered. The ADC is the largest of the five mainframe data centers in the Maryland State government. Some of the applications supported by the ADC include the Maryland State Integrated Tax (SMART) System, the State Payroll System, the Maryland State Financial Management and Information System (FMIS), and Medicaid.

This 64,000 sqft Georgian-style building was constructed to enable critical revenue collection services and taxpayer data storage for all citizens across the State of Maryland. It was equipped with cutting edge technology at the time, which has been updated repeatedly as systems evolve. The building is integrated seamlessly within the historic state office building complex, with connecting links to adjacent structures constructed much earlier in the 20th century. It was designed to mimic the traditional architecture seen across the State Capitol, consistent with the brick pavers and colonial aesthetic of the surrounding streetscape. It is a fine example of the grand civic buildings which identify the center of the city.