Westside Middle School

Additional Info

Award Winner : Nadler Modular Structures

Architectural Excellence : The City of Danbury is one of the fastest growing, and most sought-after cities, especially among middle class families in the New England area. Following a successful school project 18 months ago with Nadler, the Director of Finance for Danbury Schools asked Nadler to assist with another strategic project to support the City’s continued rapid growth.

The project involved eight modular classrooms, including a site-built corridor spanning approximately forty feet to connect the modular classrooms to the rest of the school. This innovative feature of the project protects staff and students from outside elements, especially during cold winter months, by eliminating the need to ever go outside.

The modular buildings maintained the architectural design integrity of the broader school buildings, creating a seamless experience as students move from one space to the next, and is aesthetically pleasing both inside and out.

Cost Energy Effectiveness : Unique to modular construction, Nadler was able to pass through significant cost savings to the client by compressing the fabrication process through a templated design methodology.
Using a digitally-documented design layout from a previous project built for the same school client, Nadler was able to reuse approximately 80% of previous architectural design for this new project, which is completely unique to prefabricated, modular construction.
The tangible benefits to the school included fast tracking the project delivery time frame. Going from an already aggressive 120-day time frame as originally agreed upon, Nadler surpassed the client’s expectations by bringing the complete design-to-installation time all the way down to only 90 days - representing an impressive 25% time reduction from an already expedited time frame.

Design Firm Name : Friar Associates, Inc

Occupied Date : 11/21/2019

Owner Firm Name : City of Danbury

Production Start Date : 8/23/2019

Project Location City : Danbury

Project Location State Name : CT

Technical Innovation : Innovative engineering was applied in order to deliver the modular buildings to the school due to a late change to the timeframe, impacting safety requirements.

The original delivery schedule was adjusted by the client requesting the project be done while school was in session. This meant students would be onsite, making crane lifting the modular units no longer an acceptable delivery and installation model.

To address this new delivery environment, the Nadler team used a translift methodology to ‘walk’ the eight modular buildings several hundred feet to the final installation site. To further add complexity, this process also had to be done during severe weather conditions, necessitating specialized ground preparation conducted continuously over the course of two weeks in order to safely deliver the buildings.

Total Square Feet : 8080