Carrington Elementary School
Waterbury, Conn – KBE Building Corporation (KBE) celebrated the ribbon cutting for Carrington Elementary School in Waterbury, Connecticut.
The $28 million, 82,000 square-foot project, which was built adjacent to the original elementary school, will house students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. Designed by Friar Associates of Farmington, the new school features a media center; a combined cafeteria and auditorium (“cafetorium”); a gymnasium with 138 bleacher seats, a divider, and locker rooms; academic classrooms, including art rooms and science labs; special education classrooms; and administrative offices.
Once the new school was completed, the existing school was demolished to make way for playing fields. The existing school was originally built in 1966 and named after Ralph W. Carrington, a Waterbury educator who taught during the first half of the 20th century.
The project also incorporated many sustainable design and construction features (such as radiant heating in the floors of the pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and special education classrooms) consistent with the requirements for Connecticut’s High Performance Building and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating.
KBE included Building Information Modeling (BIM) services – which use digital representations of physical facilities to assist in the design and construction processes – in the design of the project to create a visual aid to help neighbors envision the finished structure.
“Because of the new school, this is now going to be a sought-after neighborhood,” said Charles Stango, Waterbury Board of Education President.
“This is a really big deal for Waterbury,” said Kevin Brennan, Principal of Carrington Elementary School.
Echoing Principal Brennan’s comments, Mike Kolakowski, KBE President and CEO, said “This is a big deal for KBE, too – you can see the pride in the faces of everyone on our team every time we finish a gorgeous building like this. We have just created the best learning environment these kids could ever hope for.”
The ribbon cutting ceremony took place on August 22, 2013.
