Engineering changes for new Amherst school help keep costs on target at $81.2M

An architect rendering of the front entrance to the proposed new elementary school building in Amherst. DiNiSco Design
Published: 10-17-2023 11:43 AM |
AMHERST — A series of engineering adjustments to both the site and building envelope for a new net-zero emissions elementary school, to be built at the current Fort River School site, will keep the project’s estimated construction cost on target.
In advance of submitting the design development package to the Massachusetts School Building Authority this week, the Elementary School Building Committee on Friday supported various changes aimed at bringing the construction cost down to $81.29 million, or $44,860 below the $81.34 million for construction costs contained in the funding agreement with the state.
Voters in May overwhelmingly approved constructing a three-story, 105,750-square-foot building that will serve 565 K-5 students beginning in the fall of 2026. Plans call for consolidating the students and staff from the 1970s-era Fort River and Wildwood schools at the new building, with sixth graders at all three elementary schools, including Crocker Farm, heading to the Amherst Regional Middle School at some point.
Donna DiNisco, principal of DiNisco Design Inc., told the committee that the list of items to remove or change are opportunities to reduce costs, without scaling back the overall design and quality of the project.
The idea was that such cost-saving measures were needed due to requirements of complying with the latest energy model from the state’s Department of Energy Resources, which sets the guidelines for calculating building envelope performance. This raised the estimated cost of the school building to $82.57 million, including triple-pane glazing and additional insulation in the envelope.
Margaret Wood, the owner’s project manager from Anser Advisory, wrote in a memo to the committee that the cost estimate has been reconciled by the designer and owner’s project manager. “The good news is that the estimated construction cost appears to be on target,” Wood wrote.
Wood explained that getting the precise cost estimate has been happening over the summer and early fall.
“One of the most critical pieces of what’s gone on in the last few months is the further detailed design, as well as estimating to kind of reconfirm the project costs,” Wood said.
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The value engineering changes were laid out by Timothy Cooper, a senior associate with DiNisco. Cooper said that these fell into two categories, the site and building envelope, with no changes to the building finishes or program.
“We think that most of them, or basically all of them, will have very little impact on the effect and use of the building for the users,” Cooper said.
As for site changes, the two most significant are cutting $150,362 by replacing granite curbs with cape cod berms in places where there is no sidewalk, and trimming $108,455 by replacing some paved play surface with lawn.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman, who serves on the building committee, endorsed those. “I think these are pretty creative ways to bring us back into budget,” Bockelman said.
For the building envelope changes, the most significant is cutting $501,774 by substituting so-called ground face concrete masonry units, also known as cinder block, for Arriscraft, a masonry product that has the best flexibility.
While the design development package goes to the Massachusetts School Building Authority this week, DiNisco said this will be for a staff review and that no votes are being taken, as project funding is already secure.
“They’ll just want to make sure now that we’re providing the appropriate level or standard of care for our documents, and we’re receiving all the approvals going forward,” DiNisco said.
This process should take about six weeks, with comments back by the end of November, Wood said.
DiNisco will schedule a meeting with town engineers to begin a design review in early November, with the first permitting review for the new school to begin with the Conservation Commission.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.