West Philadelphia High School

New construction: West Philadelphia High School; Brinjac Engineering

By Source: Brinjac Engineering August 9, 2012

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.