Bellows
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Project Profiles
SPRING 2021
River Oaks Baptist School, Mosing Middle School Building, Sarofim Leadership Center, and Garage Concho Resources Inc., Concho Center Three and Parking Garage
Projects in Progress
Rice University, Maxfield Hall Renovation
Project Milestone
Houston Endowment Headquarter Groundbreaking
Project Profile River Oaks Baptist School, Mosing Middle School Buildng, Sarofim Leadership Center, and Garage / Houston, Texas
The River Oaks Baptist School expansion focuses on the students. The school wanted to create a learning environment centered around how their students learn – not put them in a box of traditional education styles. Now, thanks to the families who helped fund the project, the students are learning in a place designed specifically for them and around how they learn best. The students are able to flourish and grow in a place that encourages them to be their most authentic selves and guides them to think boldly. The River Oaks Baptist School’s Kids. Love. Learning. capital campaign resulted in the largest expansion in the school’s history. Mosing Middle School Building, the Sarofim Leadership Center, and an underground parking garage opened in July 2020. The project includes a new middle school building for grades five to eight, underground parking garage, leadership center, and an artificial turf practice field with a lacrosse wall. The design is based on the 21st century learning curriculum rooted in STEAM education. Jackson & Ryan Architects created a design that includes learning communities; fine arts enhancements like a ceramics rooms and rooms for both choral and instrumental music; digital media space; tinker labs; roof terraces for outdoor education; and sustainability characteristics to enhance curricular objectives.
It was imperative that the new building reflect who River Oaks Baptist School is now while looking towards the future. The four-story, metal-panel clad Mosing Middle School Building was designed to look as if it’s twisting out of the existing brick campus. Bellows Byline | Spring 2021
Project Profile River Oaks Baptist School (cont’d)
The new four-story, Keith and Alice Mosing Middle School Building features an advanced robotics lab, large maker space, dedicated music rooms for instrumental and choral groups, visual arts studios, and science labs. An added cultural arts bonus is that the middle school has a state-of-the-art performance space with retractable seating in the Petersen Blue Box Theater. Underneath the middle school is a 150-space parking garage designed to improve traffic flow and maximize green space. The 15,000-sf Sarofim Leadership Center is the new main entrance to the school and administrative wing. Each grade from fifth to eighth has a floor to themselves, which creates self-contained learning environments that enhance class identity and community. Each grade cluster includes classrooms that change purposes on various days; a science lab with age-appropriate tools for experimentation, robotics and 3D printers; a large, flexible, multipurpose space; smaller areas for meetings and collaborative work; outdoor learning space; and faculty office space. Dr. Todd Herauf, ROBS Associate Head of School for Academics, was recruited from a Texas school that successfully transitioned learning to a similar design conecept. “Children become stronger thinkers when they are active learners, and we designed the new Middle School building with this in mind,” said Herauf. With this new facility, the student-teacher ratio in Lower and Middle School classrooms will decrease. At the same time, the student population will increase by about 10 students per grade level. This change enables ROBS to strengthen programming by making more sports offerings and enrichment activities feasible. With the added learning space, ROBS is able to give more kids access to what is arguably the best education in the city.
Project Profile Concho Resources Inc., Concho Center Three and Garage / Midland, Texas
In addition to completing the Employees’ Center and Day Care in 2016 for Concho Resources Inc., which has since been acquired by ConocoPhillips, Bellows recently completed Concho Center Three (CC3), a new six-story, 205,000-sf office building and four level, 310,270-sf hybrid parking garage. The expansive main lobby is flooded with light from glass panels spanning two stories. In order to keep the climate cool within the lobby during hot weather, A/C floor grills were placed along the lobby perimeter. The second floor has a skywalk that provides an outstanding view overlooking the lobby. CC3 is also equipped with two connector bridges. One bridge connects the office building to the Employees’ Center while the other connects the office building to the garage. The bridges provide employees ease of travel to each facility as well as a comfortable environment and protection from the elements.
Bellows Byline | Spring 2021
Project Profile Concho Resources Inc. (cont’d)
The project’s hybrid garage comprised of pre-cast structure and castin-place floors presented several favorable construction advantages. Unlike a traditional cast-in-place structure that would require the use of a tower crane for the entirety of the project, the hybrid system utilized a crane for the frame erection and then transitioned to smaller forklifts for floor deck installation. Another advantage is the laydown area. In the case of a hybrid garage, the footprint of the structure is the only laydown area required. Once the frame is installed and slab-ongrade is poured, all formwork, trusses, decking, and reinforcing are placed on the slab-on-grade and moved up as the slabs are set and poured. Only shoring of the floor beams is required and provides a less congested floor area. This system also yields a safer under-slab area and allows forklifts to continue to move truss frames and decking to the next pours. Conventional cast-in-place systems typically drop and handle the tables outside of the footprint requiring more laydown space. Regarding design, the West Texas vehicle culture of large trucks and SUVs is what determined the increased ceiling height and oversized parking spaces. Level one is 16’ and levels two and three are 7’ 11”. To keep the design consistent with the existing buildings on campus, the same finishes were carried throughout the new office building. All employee offices are private with a locking sliding door and glass panels. The exterior panels are transparent while the inner panels are opaque for privacy. While each employee office has a focus on privacy and confidentiality, the collaboration areas located on each floor promote teamwork and a place for open work flow. One of the most impressive amenities in the new office building is the Poague Boardroom located on the first floor. This boardroom boasts a Texassized table that seats up to 24 people while still having ample space to move about the room. Given the size of the boardroom, it was important to equip the space with a high-quality sound system that includes a mic for each designated seat around the table. COVID-19 was a concern for all projects in 2020. The pandemic hit at a critical point, but as with every challenge, Bellows pivoted, adapted, and proceeded with the utmost care and caution. Even with the extensive COVID-19 safety procedures in place, the project never experienced a shutdown. It was the true team effort between Concho Resources Inc., Rhottenberry Wellen Architects, ADAMS Management Services, and Bellows Construction that resulted in successfully completing the project on schedule.
Project in Progress Rice University, Maxfield Hall Renovation / Houston, Texas
Existing building
The transformation of Rice University’s Mechanical Laboratory into Maxfield Hall is underway. “The Engineering School at Rice is growing,” said Reginald DesRoches, current Provost of Rice University and former Dean of Engineering. “Since I became dean in 2017 we have hired 35 new faculty members. We need more room. Thanks to Robert Maxfield (Rice graduate and project donor), the School will be able to grow and adapt to meet the demand for much-needed space among faculty and students.” The Maxfield Hall renovation project will be the new home for the Department of Statistics and includes office space, renovated classrooms, conference room, huddle rooms, as well as the addition of two new elevators. The entire facility, its exterior integrity, and all of its systems will be upgraded to comply with contemporary regulatory requirements as well as Rice’s standards. The renovated Hall is also set to achieve a LEED silver rating. Aside from two new egress stair enclosure additions and a new ADA compliant access ramp, Maxfield Hall’s exterior appearance will be preserved. The Texas Historical Commission has also approved the building’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
Bellows Byline | Spring 2021
W. S. Bellows Construction Corporation 1906 Afton | Houston, TX 77055 713.680.2132 | 713.680.2614 Visit our website: www.wsbellows.com
Project Milestone: Houston Endowment Headquarters Groundbreaking
Bellows will break ground on the highly anticipated Houston Endowment’s new headquarters building at the end of April. The new Headquarters will enable Houston Endowment, one of the largest private foundations in Texas, to relocate from its current offices in the city’s business district and embed itself within the community. The initiative will give the philanthropy a more accessible, welcoming base from which to work and aid them in bringing together partners from public, private, and non-profit sectors. The Endowment strives to best meet the needs of the community and achieve lasting positive change for the greater Houston region. The design concept envisages an airy, elegant superstructure generously shaded by a large canopy within a grove of native trees. In Kevin Daly Architects’ words, the new building, which is attuned to Houston’s demanding climate, is intended to be “as welcoming as the shadow beneath a tree.” The building design is intended to promote healthy working and offers welcoming engagement spaces that provide for convening and collaborating with the community.