West Philadelphia High School
New construction: West Philadelphia High School; Brinjac Engineering
Project name: West Philadelphia High School
Location: Philadelphia, Pa.
Firm name: Brinjac Engineering
Project type, building type: New construction, school (K-12)
Project duration: 6.5 years
Project completion date: April 3, 2007
Project budget for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineering only: $15 million
Engineering challenges
There were two major engineering challenges. The first was finding a balance between the owner’s standards, maintenance requirements, and budget constraints against obtaining LEED certification. The second was the acoustical performance levels between the indoor equipment noise and the outdoor noise levels from the neighboring elevated train (El train).
Solutions
In both cases the design group was able to overcome the challenges and the project obtained U.S. Green Building Council LEED Gold certification.