Category: Team
THANK YOU to the SCHRADERGROUP 2022 Summer Architectural Interns!
It has been quite a busy summer at SCHRADERGROUP (SG), and we cannot believe how fast time has flown by! We would like to thank our three architectural interns for their hard work and enthusiasm this summer. It is always great to welcome fresh faces to the firm, especially those still in school and looking to learn a bit more about our world! Thank you to Wiley Muck, Miranda Ocampo, and Allyson Everlof for all of your help this summer! We wish you the best in your future studies and professions!
Before they head back to school, the SG family would like highlight each of our great interns:
Wiley Muck
Graduate Student
Temple University – Bachelor of Architecture, currently pursuing Master of Architecture Degree
Wiley will be a 5th year architecture student at Temple University pursuing his Master of Architecture degree. He is the Vice President of the Club Golf team, which he started at Temple along with another architecture student. Wiley enjoys hiking, being outdoors, and can always be found listening to music during his daily activities.
Wiley’s interest in architecture began when he was young. He enjoyed playing with Legos and sketching, and as he got older, he realized that architecture was a perfect fit for him. Wiley has worked on many projects during his short time at SG, with his favorite being continuous work on a master plan for a local school district.
In the future, Wiley looks forward to one day walking or driving past a building that he designed. This is a feeling that he is looking forward to and will be a significant milestone in his future career.
Miranda Ocampo
Undergraduate Student
Pennsylvania State University – Bachelor of Architecture
Miranda will be a 4th year architecture student at Pennsylvania State University. She is the Arts Chairman of the Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority and is also an Ambassador and Mentor for the College of Arts and Architecture. In her free time, Miranda enjoys traveling, painting, and spending time with friends.
Her favorite moment at SG was learning and working alongside so many amazing individuals. She is very appreciative of the mentorship opportunities offered here and came away from her internship with more knowledge of what life after architecture school is really like. Miranda’s favorite project she worked on was a renovation/conversion project for Bucks County Intermediate Unit’s Everitt Elementary School. This project entailed transforming an unused kitchen into a family consumer science classroom so that children with special needs can learn how to do laundry, make certain meals, and wash dishes.
Looking to the future, Miranda hopes to continuously make positive impacts on peoples’ lives through architecture. Her experiences this summer have shown her the many ways that educational architecture can have major impacts on the community.
Allyson Everlof
Undergraduate Student
Pennsylvania State University – Bachelor of Architecture
Ally will be a 4th year architecture student at Pennsylvania State University. She is a Student Representative for the College of Arts and Architecture and is also a member of Delta Gamma Sorority. Ally enjoys taking nature walks, exploring new cities and environments, reading, or simply doing anything artistic or creative. In her free time, she sketches, paints, and makes her own jewelry.
Ally first got interested in architecture when she was young. She always admired beautiful homes and large buildings, and she is very excited to be a part of creating these spaces! Ally has thoroughly enjoyed her time at SG this summer. Her favorite project was a concept development for an auditorium for a nearby school district. She enjoyed getting the opportunity to add some of her own design elements into the concept. Ally’s favorite moment this summer was SG’s Second Annual Golf Outing at Walnut Lane Golf Club.
Looking to the future, Ally is excited for her semester abroad. She will be in studying architecture in Rome for a few months before traveling across Europe’s beautiful landscapes and cities. She hopes to learn even more about the unique styles and techniques of the continent’s architecture.
SCHRADERGROUP’s Managing Partner David Schrader had the following to say about our great summer interns:
“Wiley, Miranda, and Allyson have been stellar additions to the team this summer. We are sorry to see them go! The team at SCHRADERGROUP believes that we are at our best when we can share our experiences with the next generation. Our internship program is central to what we do and allows us to flourish through the enthusiasm added by our interns. We hope that they are also growing through the real-world office and construction site experiences they are able to participate in. We wish the summer 2022 class of interns well and as always; we look forward to seeing them again in the future. They are always welcome back to the offices of SCHRADERGROUP!”
As architects, we realize that the heart of our practice is its people, and we are always looking for ways to promote and foster emerging talent. At SG, we recognize the importance of an internship in the field of architecture and design, and we offer hands-on experience as well as a mentorship component in order to create an environment that leads to understanding and success for all. The SG team looks forward to sharing our company culture and practice with our architectural interns and is excited to follow their journey this summer as they gain the experience necessary for future success.
Thank you so much to Wiley, Miranda, and Ally for your dedication, work ethic, and fresh perspectives offered during your time at SG this summer. We wish you the best in the remainder of your studies and hope to hear of your future successes soon!
Interested in working with us? Visit our Careers page to see what opportunities are available at SG here.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends the PARSS Conference in Boalsburg, PA
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) Conference from May 4th to the 6th at the Wyndham Garden Hotel at the Mountain View Country Club in Boalsburg, PA.
The 2022 Conference was the first that SG has attended. SG team members Devin Bradbury and Eric Weiss represented SG at the event that included a golf tournament, a social, a dinner banquet, and various speaking engagements and presentations. It was great to see some familiar faces and to create new relationships.
The Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) is an advocacy and service organization dedicated to ensuring that the Commonwealth’s rural school students have access to a quality education. It is PARSS’s mission to promote equal opportunity for quality education for all students in every school and community in Pennsylvania.
Thank you to the PARSS Conference for having us and we look forward to returning next year! To learn more about PARSS, please click here.
To learn more about SCHRADERGROUP’s commitment to creating 21st Century learning environments, click here.
Governor Mifflin School District Breaks Ground on New Community Athletic Center
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended the official ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Community Athletic Center for Governor Mifflin School District (GMSD) on Tuesday, May 17th. SG Associates Danielle V. Hoffer and Devin Bradbury attended the event and provided SCHRADERGROUP hard hats to officially commemorate the beginning of construction. The event was attended by GMSD board members, administration, faculty, students, parents, local officials, state representatives, and even the GMSD mascot, the Mifflin Mustang!
The event was also attended by the Greater Governor Mifflin League (GGML), a community organization which manages a week-long community fair known as “Community Days,” which enables local organizations to raise funds and also bring the community closer together through amusement rides, food and game stands, and nightly entertainment. The GGML presented the district with a $10,000 donation towards the project.
The Governor Mifflin School District Community Athletic Center is a vision conceived by the community for the community. The new building will be located on the existing secondary school campus, which is shared with the 7-8 Middle School, 9-12 High School, and the District’s Education Center. To address overcrowding at the middle school, along with system and infrastructure issues at both schools, the construction of the new community athletic building at the center of the campus will serve multiple purposes. Once the construction of the new athletic building is completed in the summer of 2023, the existing physical education spaces in the middle school and high school will be relocated to the new facility. This will allow the existing gymnasium and locker room spaces in the middle school and high school to be converted to other programs to support next generation learning.
The community athletic building will house the school district’s main competition gym (which is currently off-campus) with a seating capacity of 2,000. Support spaces include locker rooms, a football locker room with equipment drying facilities, team rooms, and a running track around the perimeter of the upper level of the main gymnasium. The second floor will house the wrestling room for practices, a multi-purpose room that can accommodate anything from meetings and physical education classes to sports training, and a fitness room that can be used by the public after hours. A sports medicine training room is strategically located at the main gymnasium entrance with an exterior entrance directly adjacent the stadium for treatment of sports injuries.
Central to the community, the school district offers many services to the public that will be further enhanced by the new athletic community building. To work within the context of the site, similar materials to the other campus buildings have been incorporated with glass to provide natural light into the spaces. When lit up at night, the building will literally be a beacon of the community.
This facility is scheduled to open in August 2023.
To learn more about Governor Mifflin School District, please click here.
To learn more about the Greater Governor Mifflin League Community Days, please click here.
To learn more about SCHRADERGROUP’s commitment to design for education, please click here.
Tim Ziegler, GMSD Director of Operations, and Pat Tulley, GMSD Athletic Director, were both instrumental in working with SG and the design team to capture the school district’s vision for the design of the new Community Athletic Center.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends North Carolina Public Safety Communications Conference
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended and exhibited at the North Carolina Public Safety Communications Conference from May 1st to the 4th at the Wilmington Convention Center in Wilmington, NC. The conference was hosted by the North Carolina Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (NC APCO) and the North Carolina National Emergency Number Association (NC NENA).
The NC Public Safety Communications Conference is held annually to focus on providing educational, development, and networking opportunities for public safety communications professionals and 9-1-1 Telecommunicators. This is the first time in ten years that the conference was held in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the first time the conference was held in person (instead of virtually) in the last two years.
SG Principal Harry Pettoni joined over 300 attendees at the conference that included educational sessions on the latest public safety topics, technologies, and services as well as certifications and training for professional development. SG was happy to exhibit at this great event that allows attendees to return to their agencies with new ways to inspire and inform their peers and communities.
The North Carolina Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (NC APCO) is a member driven association of communications professionals that provides leadership and opportunities, influences public safety communications decisions for government and industries, promotes professional development, and fosters the development and use of technology for the benefit of the public and responders. NC APCO provides members with training opportunities, access to publications, and advocacy at the state and national level on topics important to the public safety communication professional.
The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) works with 9-1-1 professionals nationwide, public policy leaders, emergency services and telecommunications industry partners, like-minded public safety associations, and other stakeholder groups to develop and carry out critical programs and initiatives, to facilitate the creation of an IP-based Next Generation 9-1-1 system, and to establish industry leading standards, training, and certifications. NENA is on the forefront of all emergency communications issues and the association serves its members and the greater public safety community as the only professional organization solely focused on 9-1-1 policy, technology, operations, and education issues. With more than 16,000 members in 52 chapters across the United States and around the globe, NENA promotes the implementation and awareness of 9-1-1, as well as international three-digit emergency communications systems.
Learn more about the North Carolina Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (NC APCO) here.
Learn more about the North Carolina National Emergency Number Association (NC NENA) here.
Learn more about SCHRADERGROUP’s work in Public Safety here.
SCHRADERGROUP Sponsors and Attends the 22nd Annual MCIUEF Golf Classic
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Education Foundation (MCIUEF)’s twenty-second annual Golf Classic hosted at the Brookside Country Club in Pottstown, PA on May 9th. The event raised funds to enhance and support educational opportunities for the students of Montgomery County, PA.
SG was proud to be a sponsor for this event. SG team members Harry Pettoni and Devin Bradbury represented SG at the outing that included some well-known faces of the Intermediate Unit.
The MCIUEF celebrated its 22nd year of providing camp and post-secondary scholarships for students with special needs, enriching classroom programs with technology support, and enabling student programs beyond school district budget capabilities. This includes more than $550,000 in grants and scholarships awarded over the last 22 years.
Events like these are important to the success of a community and its students, as it allows the MCIUEF to support programs that continue to attract nearly 7,000 students each year. SG would like to thank the dedicated members of the foundation for organizing this fun event.
Learn more about SCHRADERGROUP’s work with Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and other School Districts in the region here.
Learn more about the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Education Foundation here.
Hatboro-Horsham School District’s Crooked Billet Elementary School Recognized as an Outstanding Project in Learning By Design’s Spring 2022 Issue
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is proud to announce that our recently completed project, the Hatboro-Horsham School District’s Crooked Billet Elementary School, has been recognized as an Outstanding Project in Learning By Design’s Spring 2022 Educational Facilities Design Awards Showcase issue. We are very excited to have another SG project recognized as an award-winning facility for its incorporation of next generation learning space design and planning methodologies.
Each year, Learning By Design showcases the very best in the educational design and construction market. Educational facilities are judged on the basis of innovation, community needs, interior design, sustainability, functional design, and next generation learning. The award-winning magazine is published three times a year and regularly recognizes the nation’s top K-12 and higher education projects and architecture firms.
“A project that allows for a range of activities attached to the homerooms and support developing a routine of collaboration and individual work as customary practice. Corridor positioning and pauses along the way exponentially support the potential of an agile community,” said one of the jurors for the panel about Crooked Billet Elementary School.
This replacement school on a Revolutionary War battlefield site offered opportunities to reshape the delivery of education through design that couldn’t be afforded through a 1950’s facility. The new PreK-5 Elementary School is designed for 650 students to accommodate enrollments and to consolidate schools. Incorporating the history of the Battle of Crooked Billet as part of a 21st Century learning environment provided a unique opportunity to integrate the old with the new. An exterior monument at the main entry and a two-story rotunda lobby commemorates the history of the region, the battle, and the school. The rotunda is centrally located between the curricular areas for STEAM programs, including a STEAM classroom, media center, TV studio and art classroom. This central core of the building also serves as the transitional area between the public spaces (gymnasium and cafeteria), and the academic two-story classroom wing. To enhance the delivery of instruction, grade level classrooms are clustered around a large-group instruction area. Each classroom has direct access to a small-group instruction room which can either be shared by another classroom or divided into two by a movable partition. This provides a unique opportunity to pull students for individual or small group instruction in a controlled environment, or for larger group activities in the large group instruction commons, without leaving the grade level cluster.
With an industrial complex and SEPTA rail line on one side, a residential neighborhood in front of the school, and a creek and wooded area to the other side and around the back, the orientation and placement of the building on the site was important to the design. The larger public spaces act as a noise and aesthetic buffer to the industrial area, and the two-story classroom wing on the opposite side of the building takes advantage of the views of the green space down to the creek. Adequate parking is provided in front which also serves as the parent drop-off lane pulling cars off the roadway and onto the site. A separate bus loop and drop-off area alongside the gym/cafeteria separates bus and vehicular circulation on-site.
You can view the Spring 2022 issue of Learning By Design here. You can find Crooked Billet entry on page 51!
If you’d like to learn even more about the Crooked Billet Elementary School, click here.
SG is proud to have partnered with Hatboro-Horsham School District. Learn more about this amazing school district here.
We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Hatboro-Horsham School District (HHSD) and are honored to have this wonderful facility featured in this issue. In addition to the successful completion of Crooked Billet, SG is currently working with the school district on a new replacement facility for Keith Valley Middle School. Stay tuned for more news on this exciting project as well!
SCHRADERGROUP Attends North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association Spring Conference
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended and exhibited at the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA) Spring Conference from April 23rd to the 25th in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The NCSA is a state-wide organization made up of the state’s 100 sheriffs. The association works to strengthen the professional law enforcement services provided to the people of North Carolina.
SG Principal Harry Pettoni operated the SG booth throughout the event. This conference hosted training sessions, special speakers, and exhibitions that dealt with issues in law enforcement and the community. Events like these help sheriffs across the state figure out how to better serve their communities and to share techniques and strategies with their local counterparts.
SG was pleased to be a Corporate Partner for this event. We are dedicated to regularly attending public safety and law enforcement events as they provide new information and processes for the design of safe and efficient public safety facilities.
Learn more about SCHRADERGROUP’s work in Public Safety here.
Learn more about the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association here.
SCHRADERGROUP Welcomes Newest Member to the Interior Design Team!
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is happy to announce the newest member to join our team! Please help us welcome Senior Project Manager and Interior Designer Derek Perini!
Derek A. Perini, IIDA, NCIDQ
Senior Project Manager / Interior Designer
Lebanon Valley College – Bachelor of Arts, Interior & Environmental Design
Derek is a skilled Interior Designer with over 24 years of experience. He is well known in the region for his expertise in senior living design, having completed multiple multi-million-dollar retirement complexes in Pennsylvania and several other states.
Derek’s career includes high level Associate and Senior positions at previous firms in the region, with a focus on interior design and interior architectural design in the Senior Living, Multi-Family, Hospitality, and Higher Education markets. His skill in working closely with clients to design interior solutions that support programming objectives will be of immense value to the SCHRADERGROUP team.
At SG, Derek will be working with our Interior Design Team to provide his design expertise to new K-12 and Higher Education projects. He will also bring his past knowledge and experience of senior living and multi-family design to the table while we look to grow and expand into new markets.
Derek is passionate about both learning and teaching. He enjoys being challenged to learn new things and is excited to be pushed outside of his comfort zone in his new position. Derek is also enthusiastic about mentoring. His past positions have allowed him the opportunity to mentor young designers and he finds this to be one of the most rewarding parts of the job. His time mentoring has also proven to be very beneficial for him as well, as their “fresh eyes” and creativity give him inspiration to feed off of. In his free time, Derek enjoys cooking and baking.
Derek is a member of multiple professional organizations, including the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) and the Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE). He is also certified by the National Council for Interior Design Qualification and additionally serves on the exam grading committee. He is a Lebanon Valley College graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Interior and Environmental Design.
Welcome Derek! We are happy to see our Interior Design Team continue to grow, and we look forward to working on many successful projects together!
Interested in working with us? Visit our Careers page to see what opportunities are available at SG here.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends A4LE Northeast’s 2022 Annual Regional Conference
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) recently attended the annual Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) 2022 Northeast Region Conference from April 6th to the 9th in Washington, D.C.
The conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill and was attended by SG Managing Partner David Schrader, Principal Harry Pettoni, Associate Danielle Hoffer, Interior Designer Charlotte Stoudt, and Project Architect Christopher Farmer.
In addition to our firm’s presence at this great event, SG’s own David Schrader and Danie Hoffer presented a special session along with the School District of Springfield Township’s (SDST) Director of Student Affairs, Dr. Catherine Van Vooren.
The session, titled “Enhanced Critical Thinking – For 5 Year Olds?” profiled how SDST and the community worked together to inspire the design of a new K-2 early learning center: the Enfield Elementary School located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The session dove into how SG’s community-based workshop process and the resulting school design promotes critical thinking, student movement, collaboration, socialization, and communication through the principles of project-based learning for these very young and influential minds.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Blossoming Minds… A Time for Renewal and Optimism.” The event gathered school facility managers, architects, educators, school planners, engineers, and maintenance and industry experts to share in new conversations about the need for adapting our learning environments to new levels of mindfulness, as well as personalized comfort found in equality, inclusion, and the community. The conference focused on a strong understanding of the student experience and how designing with empathy allows for school planning to be driven by a focus on the future of learning, while still supporting capital needs, growth, and other logistical considerations of school systems.
The SG team would like to thank the dedicated staff of A4LE for organizing this great event and to all who attended our session, and we look forward to attending another A4LE conference very soon!
The Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) is a professional non-profit association dedicated to improving the places where children learn. The A4LE Northeast Region consists of Chapters that service the Northeast Region of the United States as well as nearby Canadian Provinces. To learn more about the A4LE Northeast Region, please click here.
To learn more about SCHRADERGROUP’s commitment to design for education, please click here.
SCHRADERGROUP Welcomes Newest Member to the Architectural Production Team!
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is happy to announce the newest member to join our team! Please help us welcome Architectural Designer Trevor Mitchell!
Trevor Mitchell
Architectural Designer
Philadelphia University – Bachelor of Architecture, Minor in Sustainability
Trevor is a Philadelphia University graduate with over six years of experience in architectural design, most recently serving as Office BIM Manager and Architectural Designer at his previous architectural firm. During that time, he managed Building Information Modeling for the office, providing support and resolutions to program issues as well as operational training for his coworkers.
In addition to being an experienced designer, Trevor is a skilled organizer who is capable of creating templates and systems to enhance efficacy, whether for a project or for the firm as a whole. He has experience in all phases of a project’s life cycle, from initial surveying and test fits through to construction administration. His experience with educational and public safety facility design will be of tremendous benefit to SCHRADERGROUP.
Trevor is passionate about green design and sees our work with schools as a teaching opportunity to educate students about sustainability through building design. In his free time, Trevor enjoys working on home improvement projects and outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, hunting, and kickball.
Looking to the future, Trevor’s first goal is becoming a licensed architect. He hopes that his work here at SG will have an impact on the communities that we design for. Trevor is very knowledgeable about our education and public safety industries and looks forward to the new changes and techniques seen in the design of these types of facilities as of late.
Welcome Trevor! We are proud to have you join SG and are excited to see what’s in store for your future here! Our team looks forward to sharing our company culture and practice with our new team member and is excited to follow his journey of future success.
Interested in working with us? Visit our Careers page to see what opportunities are available at SG here.