According to Antinozzi Associates the construction of the Capitol Region Education Council's (CREC) Medical Profession and Teacher Preparation Magnet School has begun.
Antinozzi was awarded by CREC to design this new magnet school, which will provide new 6 - 12 graders educational and medical education, allowing up to 700 students who are interested in teaching or the medical field to be enrolled in either program. Additionally, a pre-kindergarten child-care facility will be incorporated into the building for both student teaching and staff use.
The new 145,000 s/f, $64 million magnet school facility will have state-of-the-art teaching spaces, including a medical simulation instructional space and specialized laboratories. The new technology and equipment will be outfitted to support an interactive and student centered educational experience. Similarly, the main lecture hall will utilize this technology to support distance learning instruction.
The exterior of the building is a conceptual representation of the human body, with the outside veneer alluding to the varying textures of the human skin complexion. The main lecture hall, a spherical structure facing the main entrance of the building, has a red glass tile component that is reminiscent of the human heart. Overall, the design embodies the characteristics of a corporate building rather than that of a "traditional" school, which gives each student the mindset and ability to gradually develop their skills for the real world. "CREC chose these two fields as the focus of their school in anticipation that they will be in high demand in the future job market in Connecticut," said Michael Losasso of Antinozzi, the firm's project manager for the school.
CREC is one of several schools that Antinozzi has recently designed to meet high performance, energy efficiency standards, or will meet LEED requirements, as required by the State of Connecticut's high performance building standards.
The magnet school, currently under construction on an 18-acre site, will share space with a large commercial park. Typically, only commercial spaces can be built in this location, but the city's zoning department granted a special permit to CREC because they felt it would complement the surrounding neighborhood schools.
Additionally, CREC received a zoning modification to build a collection of solar panels next to the school, which will convert sunlight into electricity, generating up to 18% of the school's annual power usage.
As an added feature, an apple orchard will be planted near the building, easily accessible to the faculty, students, and the public. The orchard is homage to both "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," a common saying in the medical field, and the apple given as a traditional present to teachers in the United States.
The school is expected to be completed for the start of the 2014-2015 school year.
Antinozzi is a full-service architecture and interior design firm that strives to take pure ideas and transform them into contextually and technically sound buildings. For the past 56 years, Antinozzi Associates has designed educational, municipal, community and various other facilities, all the while maintaining long-term relationships with the clients and communities they serve.