In this episode of Laying the Foundation, we delve into the challenges and triumphs of the Melcher-Dallas High School renovation project. Following a devastating gymnasium roof collapse, we discuss the design and construction of a new gymnasium and addition featuring dedicated spaces for electives. We explore how the project team navigated the complexities of construction during the COVID-19 pandemic, including supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. Finally, we reflect on the importance of resilience, adaptability, and community collaboration in bringing this vital project to fruition, ultimately enhancing educational opportunities for students in rural Iowa.

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Episode Transcript

(Skyler): Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Laying the Foundation podcast. My name is Skyler, your host. And back again with us to talk about another project highlight is Ryan Cameron from our Des Moines office, one of our amazing architects. Ryan, welcome back to the show.

(Ryan): Awesome. Thanks for having me again, Skyler.

(Skyler): Absolutely. Well, it's always great to have you. Last time you were on, we talked about the Knoxville Middle School project. And this time, we're jumping into the Melcher High School project. So, another school, but an entirely different project, which is exciting. I'm sure there are all kinds of different things that we're going to be discussing within that. So, kicking things off, we'll just jump in. Tell me about the project. Tell me about, you know, what the general goals were, what we were looking for here? What were they looking for, probably more importantly? And yeah, tell me, tell me a little bit about that.

(Ryan): Yeah, so, funny story, we had actually started working with them on a small, little 650 square foot science room addition. And just as that project had completed, a big snowstorm, I want to say it was maybe around January of 2021, had hit and caused a partial collapse of the gym's structure. It wasn't a roof cave-in or anything like that, but there were some pretty noticeable structural issues from the weight of the snow. It was that much snow that year. Of course, this is when COVID was going on, and all kinds of crazy things were happening. And so the superintendent gave us a call, and I, of course, thought it had to do with the science room or something. And he said, "No, I need you to come take a look at something." So we drove down there, took a look, and I immediately got our engineers involved, we got their insurance company involved, and we knew there were some issues. And so, after working with their insurance company and with their teachers and staff, we decided that the best direction to go was to run a bond and help them raise the money and funds and get a check from insurance to turn this into a project. And that meant basically slicing off everything: the gym plus everything that was sort of surrounding the gym because we couldn't exactly, you know, save the foot by amputating the knee, the way this gym was kind of plugged into the school. So we kind of had to clear it all out. And we split the bond money for part of it, and the insurance money for the gym portion of it. So it ended up being kind of a win for the whole school.

(Skyler): Yeah.

(Ryan): And I actually just talked to the superintendent last week, and he mentioned to Andrew Miller and me that he still gets compliments on the design aspects of it. So I'd love to cover kind of what we were able to accomplish with this. So the gym got wiped away, and that also took some elective spaces like art, music, the shop, and the weight room. So prior to this, their weight room was located in the shop.

(Ryan): So you can imagine bench pressing while wood dust is...

(Skyler): Oh my gosh.

(Ryan): The art room had no windows, no connection to daylight.

(Skyler): Right.

(Ryan): As we all know, I love putting art rooms on north-facing glass. It's just, you know, the cleanest light that you can get; it's all reflected light that comes back in. And then we also provided patio space for these classrooms to walk out onto. So if you're in art, you've got low-top seating, you've got high-top seating, and then you can go outside on nice days and be in the shade, which has been really helpful for art teachers and the students to do art. And they also needed a kind of new admin space and a little bit better functioning, secured entrance, let's just say.

(Ryan): And so the most fun of this project was probably because it was something that had never happened to me before. We sheepishly sometimes go into these school board meetings and say, "Hey, we hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're going to need to go bond, you're going to need to raise X amount of dollars." We say you can go the 2.7 million route or the 4.05 million route. And to my surprise, the community that had shown up, the board members that showed up, they literally said, "Go big or go home."

(Skyler): Okay. Awesome.

(Ryan): This is a small, small, small town.

(Skyler): Right.

(Ryan): And so for them to say that, and they were right. I mean, it's not that we were surprised in a bad way. They were right. It was, they were long overdue for some upgrades to the school. I think their last bond was sometime in the 1980s.

(Skyler): Wow.

(Ryan): So yeah, so yeah, this was a big moment for them. And so we were able to kind of get rid of the old 60s component of that original school and replace it with a 2023 modern school. The gym is pretty amazing. We actually created a skybox weight room and wrestling room that overlooks the center court. And so they're able to, and there's an elevator in there, and so they're able to bring, you know, some people that don't always get a great seat, and they're able to get, you know, the more elderly folks that want to see their grandsons and granddaughters play volleyball or basketball, they're able to sit in the second-story glass overlooking center court.

(Skyler): That's awesome. That's so cool. Yeah, that's really amazing. Well, this is definitely a very different concept for a project than any of the ones that we've talked about on the podcast or that I've talked to anybody about. Because this stemmed from an emergency, right? Like this stemmed from, oh, we've had a structural collapse. We need to do something about this, as opposed to a lot of the other projects are usually, we want to upgrade, or we want to change something, or we want a new space, or whatever the case. So this is definitely really interesting to me because, like I said, I've never heard of this from this angle, you could say. So yeah, this is really interesting how this process kind of went down.

(Ryan): It's rare; it's only the second time I've done this. And it was ironically with the exact same insurance company staff. So, sure, you know, tornadoes had hit Iowa, I want to say, in 2018 and had wiped out a small school. So very similar situation, different weather conditions, but very much, "We need to do something; we need to do something now." And I feel like we definitely improved how it worked. So, case in point, before, to get to art or get to shop class or to get to the admin wing, you actually had to walk through the gym in order to do that. There was no corridor, there was no... So whatever was going on in the gym, you kind of somewhat interrupted in a visual way as you walked through and meandered through kind of a maze of lockers and restrooms and things like that. It was unusually laid out, let's just say. So our concept was athletics on one end and electives on the other. And so in order to again work with the community, the idea was that you could open up the gym, lockers, weight room, and skybox on the weekends and only have to lock one internal pair of doors to kind of block off the rest of the school. You would still have access to restrooms and all the stuff that you would need in a gym. But they were able to work that out with the community and be open on evenings and weekends for community members who voted for this to come in, just to get a little workout in, you know, get out on the weights, treadmill, whatever. And so they love that idea. And again, the superintendent just told me last week that the community is using it, and so they just love it. It's a dream come true for them.

(Skyler): Absolutely. It's really interesting. I've noticed that a lot of the school projects that we've worked on as of late have usually had some sort of community-accessible space, usually in the form of something like a workout space, obviously the gymnasium to some extent, which I think is really cool, that we're able to... I mean, I would imagine it would help the community want to, you know, vote in favor of the bonds and stuff like that, to know that they even have access, whether you have kids in the school or not. It's something that you, as a community member, are gaining, which is really, really nice. Really nice for sure.

(Ryan): Yeah. I mean, you're gaining a YMCA membership for a little bit of tax money.

(Skyler): Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty... It all works out, and that's fantastic. So, with so many different elements or spaces within this project, how were we able to sort of both develop those and the different needs that they had? And then also, how were we taking sort of the elements of the school that didn't have an issue and still remained, that you said kind of like 1980s, 1960s, you know, somewhere in there, kind of had that design style to it. How did we integrate all of this together with the new stuff that we had to put in?

(Ryan): Yeah, so I kind of start the conversation with: I never want to give a client back exactly what they have, but...

(Skyler): Right. Oh, sure. Okay.

(Ryan): It needs to be... We need to set aside some goals for every single space that we're going to create, and why it's better or why it's going to be in the location that it's at, or why the adjacency is now better and better in the future. And really, some of them are easy. Right. The art room had no windows to the outside whatsoever. That's not great for an art room. So not only did we give them windows to the outside, but an actual door, a private door, if you will. Of course, it locks and all that stuff, but to the outside, where there are trees and there's a path and there are places to sit, for them to kind of sit outside. So it's a different environment for them. Same thing with the band room. The band room was, you know, pretty typical of a 1980s design, but there were no real angled walls or baffling, or we tried to design it acoustically. And so, we definitely made much more use of the space that we had. We were able to get more private, like practice rooms, and really develop the office to be inside the classroom as opposed to down the hall. And so, just improving these little things makes a huge impact on the longevity of that design.

(Skyler): No, that's fantastic. Yeah. I love the way that you said that, too, because I don't want to take what already existed and just make it new. There's a strategy that goes into this. There's... We talked about it when we did the Knoxville project episode, where it's taking those pieces of the puzzle and putting them together in a new way that's better than what was there before. And I think that's fantastic. That's a great way to put it. Now, this was also, similarly to the Knoxville project, this was during kind of the COVID pandemic and everything. And with that, there were a lot of challenges that were presented. What kind of challenges did we have to deal with and overcome in order to make sure that this project was getting done, was getting designed, was getting constructed?

(Ryan): Yeah. So, estimating was incredibly challenging. So I've been in the industry now for 20, 23 years. OK. And so of the 19 years prior to that, I had developed rules of thumb that you could sort of count on. You know, like glass costs as much as a square foot of carpet. You can allocate X dollars per square foot. You could really create these rules of thumb that were pretty dependable.

(Skyler): Yeah.

(Ryan): In kind of like quick design iteration situations, you could just kind of calculate them out really quickly. All of that went away during COVID, and prices that you thought you wouldn't see until the end of your career, you're seeing at this point in your career. And it was frustrating to have somebody tell you that something that you thought was $40 a square foot is now $75 a square foot in the matter of six months. Yeah. So. Or, we occasionally came into a conversation of lead times went from eight weeks to, I kid you not, 40 weeks.

(Skyler): Wow.

(Ryan): And so that's a huge issue. And some of these things that had 40-week lead times are things that you cannot do without. It's like the switchgear of the electrical components of the building. You can make do for a very short amount of time, but you can't... It's very, very hard. And so luckily, we had a fantastic construction manager, DCI Group, shout out to them, to really break down estimates. Of course, you've got to remember we're also doing estimates for the insurance company to kind of prove our point on constructability, schedule, and budget.

(Skyler): Right.

(Ryan): And so they... We were able to do that dance, you know, all while we were working remotely, because now, you're talking 2021, 2022, and things are definitely shut down and things are definitely having an impact. And all the crazy things in the world were going on: weather conditions and, again, I mentioned this on the last talk, the Suez Canal Evergreen that got stuck. That ended up kind of creating an issue for us from an electronic standpoint to a furniture standpoint. So we had to manage and adapt to that very quickly.

(Skyler): Now, my curiosity would be as... Because this was like a hole, there's, you know, a structural collapse that kind of sparked this whole project in the first place. Granted, you had the COVID pandemic and everything, all the restrictions and everything that came along with that. How was the school at the time handling students? And the fact that, you know, this entire chunk of school that, as you mentioned

(Skyler): Before, it even had elements that required you to walk through it in order to get to some of the other spaces. How was this working with the students and classes, and things along those lines?

(Ryan): I think that puts a lot of pressure on the superintendent.

(Skyler): Yes.

(Ryan): If there's anybody who did a great job of managing this, it was probably Scott.

(Skyler): Wow.

(Ryan): And so, fortunately, he's also the superintendent. The guy's busy. He's also the superintendent at another school district. And he also has connections and friends at other school districts as well. So he's able to, you know, have sporting events at either the elementary or his other school district, or you know, finding floor space, gym time, if you will, and how to organize practices now. So there's nothing that we could do as architects other than, you know, advise. But the superintendent is really critical in that role. When all these things are going sideways, how do they manage that? I feel like Scott did a phenomenal job.

(Skyler): Absolutely. Yeah. Keeping things, keeping things moving. I mean, it's different when it's a school like a redesign or something along those lines or an expansion even, where, you know, obviously the students can work around in the classes, can work around and so on and so forth, can work around the construction or whatever else. But this was like a... Yeah, a big, big impact element that was kind of locked in because of all the COVID stuff and everything like that. Like...

(Ryan): Yeah. Which, if you think about it, in a way, they kind of benefited from it because it was all learned from home. Yeah.

(Skyler): Yeah.

(Ryan): Well, half the school just got chopped off anyway. There was no place for them to do art in, no place. So they were able to... In some ways, it was very stressful. Again, I can't... Oh, absolutely, how stressful it was. But, in some ways, it just happened to be really good timing.

(Skyler): Right.

(Ryan): They really needed a remote situation to happen, and so they were able to work their way through that. And as we started coming out of, you know, COVID, the school was basically nearly done. And so, other than probably one and a half semesters, so one entire grade was really affected, the grade behind them was affected a little less, and then all the grades beyond that were almost not affected.

(Skyler): Right. Wow, that's amazing, though. I mean, at the end of the day, we as a society, you know, we see a problem, we find solutions, and then we try to thrive within that. Right. And so this is definitely an example of that. Like you said, incredibly stressful all along the way, but ironically found a solution that actually kind of attributed both of the challenges that we were struggling with, and managed to make them work from that in. So that's yeah. That's really cool.

(Ryan): One of those things, again, a huge benefit that came out of it was they the school didn't have, maybe I've coined this term, but like a "Zoom room."

(Skyler): Yeah.

(Ryan): Right. They didn't have spaces for students to go, and we probably wouldn't have designed a Zoom room and the small conference room and these different little breakout places the way that we did had the pandemic not happened at that moment in time. And so I think overall that really helped change the tone of that design and will definitely have a positive impact on those students because now they have places to go with that Zoom room, a small conference room, the little collaboration zones that we broke open. Yeah, it's just... It's different now and also very successful.

(Skyler): Yeah. Really helped us give a kind of insight into what the future would look like, as far as that goes. Like, it kind of forced us into that, but in a good way, that kind of helped out a little bit. So very cool. What about the community when all of this was going on? Obviously, with these rural projects, we rely on our communities a lot. We talked about that in the Knoxville project, and we've talked about that in a lot of our podcast episodes in the past about how important community is to any given project. How did the... Aside from, as you mentioned before during the bond process, them saying, you know, "Go big or go home" and being all for, you know, getting this project off the ground, how else did the community kind of get involved within this and help make sure it succeeded?

(Ryan): Yeah, so we did some, I think, a pair of community sponsorships or team-building planning meetings, and a lot of people showed up. And I would say the vast, vast majority, unlike any others I've ever been in, the vast majority were pumped, overly excited, to not only participate but to see all these images that we were able to create and really expand and let them know that the world of education is changing and they're going to, you know, be able to jump in, you know, with this whole 21st-century learning, this whole change that's happening, and keep them relevant

(Ryan): For the next, you know, 10, 20 years. And so that... That was exciting for me. That had a good impact on the community. And then icing on the cake is just we were able to open it up on nights and weekends and give them access to that again. Scott just told me last week that he gets, you know, a compliment a week, it sounds like, and other superintendents that have come to visit may be jealous that they have such a great facility. And it's really just a testament to the design team and the construction team and the superintendent and his staff. We were able to work through, let's be honest, like the most stressful time of all of our lives over the last five years, we were able to come together and create this beautiful space that helps propel them in the education world for the next 10, 20 years.

(Skyler): Absolutely. Hey, you know, there's nothing that does marketing better than people seeing the projects that we've done and how amazing they can be and saying, "I want that."

(Ryan): Yep.

(Skyler): Especially when it comes to the school districts, the superintendents, and even the students. I mean, they... We've had; I've had a couple of times where I've been at a career fair, just talking to high school students about architecture as a career. And we'll show them pictures of, you know, one of the other schools that we've done in the area. And they'll take those pictures, and they run off to their superintendent, and they're like, "We want our school to look like this." So it's so awesome to get to see that and to be a part of that. It's, like I said, it's easily the best way we could do marketing, right? Is that sort of firsthand seeing it and being able to say, "Wow, like, this is a nice facility. We want our facility to be this nice." So that's fantastic. That's amazing. So, well, fantastic. Is there anything that I haven't touched on? I guess there's, like, looking forward. I know we talked a little bit about some of the projects you were looking forward to when we talked about the Knoxville project. So we're always working in the K-12 sector for sure. So there are definitely projects headed our way.

(Ryan): Yeah. Oh, can you believe that? All the schools are amping up in their athletic performance and their educational facilities. And so, we're more than happy to help.

(Skyler): Yeah.

(Ryan): Able to do some analysis for some folks.

(Skyler): Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. If you're a superintendent out there that's listening, or anyone else on the school board that's listening, and you guys are thinking about a possible project, a possible addition or renovation, or maybe you want a total redo on the school project, yeah, absolutely. Always feel free to reach out to us. And we have some pretty amazing staff who have done some incredible design work that we would love to talk about the possibilities for sure. So with that being said, Ryan, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate you sharing your expertise. This is a... Like I said before at the beginning, this is a wild project. This is not... This is a very different process from any of the other stuff that we've talked about so far. So, it's really awesome to be able to hear how it all worked out, what happened, and how it all kind of came together in the end, which is really cool. It's always super encouraging and super exciting to hear when the projects are able to kind of just... They fit together, and they come together, and the community is stoked to be a part of it all. We're obviously stoked to be a part of it all. And it just comes out to be something truly beautiful at the end.

(Ryan): Absolutely. No challenge is too big for us.

(Skyler): That's right. That's right. I like that. I like that a lot.

(Ryan): Awesome.

(Skyler): Well, thank you again, Ryan. Super great. Yeah, super glad to be able to have you on the show.

(Ryan): Awesome. Take care.

(Skyler): Hey, you too. If you'd like to find out more about the Laying the Foundation podcast, you can head over to any podcast streaming platform, such as Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and others. You can also find out more about CMBA architects through social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. 1  Additionally, you can head over to the CMBA website at CMBAarchitects.com. If you're 2  in architecture or design, a  professional or an intern looking for an internship within those fields, please be sure to check out our website and click on the Careers tab to find out more about what opportunities we offer. 3  This has been another episode of 4  the Laying the Foundation podcast. We'll see you next time.