Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 31 May 2019
Vacant office parks find new life as schools, colleges

By MICHAEL MELIA well to a school setting,
Associated Press and the retrofit took much
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) — On less time than it would have
the new satellite campus of to build a new school.
Sacred Heart University, the “We went to the planning
helicopter landing pad re- council in September, and
mains as one of the few re- 11 months later the building
minders that the wooded, opened, all glossy and gor-
69-acre property served geous,” she said.
until recently as the global HOUSTON
headquarters for General As the Awty International
Electric. School was looking for room
Where Jack Welch sat at to expand its early learn-
the pinnacle of corpo- ing center, the Houston
rate America, professors neighborhood was seeing
now lead classes inside business parks give way to
the sleek, 1970s buildings more condos, apartments
on the campus purchased and retail development.
by the university following When an office park across
GE’s departure for Boston the street became avail-
in 2016. able for sale, the private
Across the country, of- school in the city center
fice parks that have lost bought the five-acre prop-
their luster with employers This undated photo made available by Josh Meister shows the North Atlanta High School in Atlanta. erty. It opened in Septem-
are being repurposed as Associated Press ber 2017 as a campus for
school buildings. Colleges was looking at an unoc- dows to keep students from er that had once housed preschool through first
and school districts willing cupied building that once falling through if any were the National Diabetes As- grade students. A play-
to think beyond traditional housed Xerox as the poten- to crash into them while sociation headquarters. ground replaced a parking
school settings are retrofit- tial site of an elementary roughhousing. In September, the building lot in an interior courtyard,
ting office space to help school. IBM’s kitchen and cafeteria reopened as the Ferdinand and the ceiling was raised
them deal with growing Some other examples: were kept in place — with T. Day Elementary School, in one building to accom-
enrollments and a scarcity ATLANTA some modifications. named for a civil rights ad- modate a gym.
of land in urban and subur- When Atlanta Public “You can’t have chande- vocate who worked for de- The 30-year-old develop-
ban areas. Schools decided to build liers in a kids’ cafeteria,” segregation in Alexandria. ment had been home to
Sacred Heart computer a high school inside a said Bob Just, an architect The school district bought a businesses including a bi-
science professor Bob Mc- 11-story office tower that with the firm Cooper Carry parking garage adjacent cycle maker and a tax of-
Cloud said he likes the once housed IBM, design- in Atlanta. to the building for play- fice before being sold. The
natural light the floor-to- ers found classrooms fit well North Atlanta High School ground space, including school renovated the entire
ceiling windows bring into within the column structure. opened in the new space in a basketball court on the property, adding color to
the classrooms. And the But there was plenty that 2013. IBM once employed roof. A footbridge was built the brick facade with new
leftover cubicles outside his needed changing. over 5,000 people at the to allow children to walk resin panels, and they were
office leave plenty of room A nine-story building on the site but that had number from the third floor of the on track for significant sav-
for his graduate students. 56-acre property was torn had dwindled to less than school to the building with ings compared to the costs
But he is still adjusting to the down to make room for a a thousand as more were play areas. of new construction before
former GE site. gymnasium and audito- working at home or cus- The bottom four floors make running into challenges
“It’s a little corporate,” he rium. Stairs were installed to tomer sites. up the school, with the top with the remodeling.
said. create double-level com- ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA two reserved for school of- “I’m not sure in the end we
A 28-bedroom guesthouse mon areas for each grade With a fast-growing student fice space. With large win- really realized those sav-
with a ballroom has been level and reduce logjams population, and little avail- dows that let in abundant ings,” said Don Davis, the
kept by the university to on the elevators. And lami- able land, the city of Alex- natural light, school district school’s director of facili-
support a new hospitality nated glass was installed in andria saw opportunity in a spokeswoman Helen Lloyd ties, “but it turned out to be
program. Renovations are all the floor-to-ceiling win- cheap, vacant office tow- said the building lent itself a very nice project.”q
still underway at the two
main buildings, but the uni-
versity already has moved
the education, computer
science and engineering
departments to what it is
calling its West Campus, a
short shuttle ride from the
main campus.
Michael Kinney, a university
administrator, said the $31.5
million paid for the property
was a bargain when com-
pared with the cost of new
construction.
A similar idea has been
under consideration a few
miles down the Connecti- This August 2018 photo provided by The Awty International This Oct. 2, 2018, photo shows the former General Electric
School shows a playground at The Early Learning campus at The
headquarters in Fairfield, Conn., that was purchased by Sacred
cut shoreline in Stamford, Awty International School in Houston. Heart University in 2016.
where the school district Associated Press Associated Press