Teams unite for successful high school projects

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The Union Grove High School additions and renovation project is the result of just over $8 million in capital bond funding approved by the Union Grove Consolidated School District voters.

But the end result, which includes a new agricultural technology building and greenhouse, is a distinct way for local students to carve out careers in agriculture and the trades.

“We’re working with a lot of high schools,” said Doug Kunde, a project architect at Milwaukee-based Plunkett Raysich Architects. “And in every district they ask how to expose high school students to different industries either in classrooms or just by walking by.”

There were three distinct parts to the project.

One is a new agriculture building with an animal-research lab, associated classrooms and a 2,800-square-foot greenhouse. The lab is at the north end of the high school campus and supports the Agriculture Academy and Future Farmers of America Program.

The second part involves renovations to the school’s existing technical education department. These include revamped labs and classroom spaces for engineering, CNC machinery, woodworking and automotive courses. Additional improvements to the science lab were included to accommodate the school’s Project Lead the Way Health Science Academy program.

Finally, the project team designed and built a two-story, 12,000-square-foot addition for arts curriculum along with a new fitness room. This part of the project was tacked on to the existing building, and new storage areas were carved out of the existing structure, Kunde said. This helped overhaul a landlocked section of the building, which has been cobbled together in a series of additions over the past 80 years.

Dan Bay, a senior project manager at Scherrer Construction, said the various previous expansions and remodeling work made the latest project more difficult than expected. But owing to the strong project team’s work, unexpected difficulties were overcome on the fly and resulted in a successful project that will benefit the entire Union Grove community.

“It was very complicated and interesting,” Bay said. “The previous people didn’t keep as-built plans and we were finding surprises. Some of the connections were tough, but we worked hand in hand with PRA to modify it and make it all work. It was great teamwork between the design team and the owner and us being the GC. We are a tripod, and if one leg doesn’t stand up the whole thing doesn’t stand up.”