Facility
In 2008, Community Leadership Academy completed its $8.8 million dollar facility project and moved into a new 50,000 square foot building on four acres located at 6880 Holly Street in Commerce City, Colorado. The facility boasts 22 classrooms, a full gymnasium, art studio, music/performance room, cafeteria, technology lab, science room, and library.
In 2011, the school received a $47,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. This financial support helped CLA purchase a permanent play structure for students in grades K-4 and an Energi® Total Body Fitness System for the older students. With these newly acquired outdoor structures, the school now has two playgrounds, an exercise circuit, grass field, and outdoor court area.
"Green" (Enviromentally-Friendly) Building Features:
Materials that have a low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) content include the foundation waterproofing, adhesives for the floor base, joint sealants for the tilt-up panels and all of the interior paint. This reduces the quantity of indoor air contaminants increasing the quality of the air.
The Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) roof has a solar reflectance index (SRI) of 95. (A good SRI is = 78.) This reduces heat islands, which are thermal gradient differences between developed and undeveloped areas, and minimizes the impact on microclimate as well as human and wildlife habitats.
All the access doors are made from recycled steel and have a paint finish that contains 0 VOC's.
The acoustical tile has 55% recycled content, the acoustical grid has a minimum of 25% recycled content and the gypsum ceiling has 5% recycled content.
Concrete walls:
780 cubic yards (3,159,000 pounds) of concrete make up the wall panels for Community Leadership Academy and consist of 63.6 tons of rebar (1 ton = 2,000 pounds).
The concrete tilt-up panels weigh almost as much as one floor system in the World Trade Center Towers did.
The panels that make up the gym average 80,000 pounds EACH with the heaviest panel weighing 84,565 pounds. The 2-story section panels, like the one making up Lab 2C, range from 40,000 to 65,000 pounds.
The school name was cast into three separate panels using plywood cut-outs that were hand-cut and sanded. Then the edges were wrapped with plastic laminate to give them their "crisp" look.
Over 16,000 linear feet, equivalent to 3 miles, of reveal forms were used to create the rustication lines and diagonal patterns on the building.
From start to finish, it took a total of 2,815 man-hours of on-site labor to pour and erect the panels. If only one person was working, it would take him about 117 days!
Glass:
The 1,800 square feet of glass on the building exterior weigh 12,600 pounds, which is heavier than some small Orca whales.
The 400 square feet of interior glass weighs 1,400 pounds.
The 3,900 lineal feet of aluminum weighs 5,265 pounds, which is the same weight as a female African elephant.
Electrical wire:
96,043 feet, or 18.2 miles, of electrical wire was installed (not including control, fire alarm, security wire, etc. This is the same distance as if 2000 semi-trucks were lined up bumper to bumper.
29,319 feet, or 5.5 miles, of various types of conduit were installed.
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