Phenix School Apartments

Baker Group worked with ASK Studio and the Weitz Company to transform a 75-year-old elementary school into a 17-unit apartment building for local artists. The building now serves as a work and living space employing shared studios and apartments. The goal of the project was to help to bolster the local art scene in Valley Junction by providing a creative space in a residential neighborhood. “The city was really looking for a way to link the residential part of the neighborhood to what’s happening there,” said Matt Hauge, communications director for the Community Housing Initiatives, the project's developer.

Baker Group was responsible for all MEP components of this retrofit project including design services, prefabrication, BIM/preconstruction, HVAC, sheet metal, plumbing, piping, electrical switchgear, power, lighting, and service. The Mechanical, Sheet Metal and Electrical Business Units were all involved to bring the project to fruition. It was very important to the owner that the building obtain Green Globes certification. The certification means that the building demonstrates national leadership and excellence in the practice of energy, water, and environmental efficiency to reduce environmental impacts,

The two main challenges of the project were complying with Green Globes Certification ratings when selecting new systems and completely repurposing the building from a school to multi-family use and integrating MEP systems into the architecture of the existing spaces. The biggest challenge that this job presented was to completely re-purpose this space from its original function as an elementary school into its new function as apartments. MEP requirements are very different for today’s modern apartments than they were nearly 80 years ago when the Elementary School was originally constructed. In addition to a complete change in MEP system, Baker Group was asked to integrate MEP system routing into the overall architecture and design concept through existing structure.

Another challenge was to bring the building up to today’s current ‘Existing Building’ baseline for Green Globes Certifications. MEP systems needed to be carefully considered and reviewed with the overall project approach for analysis. The Architecture and construction firms had to work closely together as one integrated team to achieve this goal. Project Manager Brandon Hummel said, “the design-build process that was chosen allowed the building owner to get real-time feedback as drawings progressed, as well as ‘live’ constructability analysis for the different Green Globes options were considered.”