Category: News
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.
Franklin County, NC Breaks Ground on New E911 Communications Center
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended the official ceremonial groundbreaking for the new 911 Primary Public Safety Answering Point Facility on Wednesday, April 6th, 2022, in Louisburg, North Carolina. Principal Harry Pettoni represented SG at the event that was attended by the County Commissioners, County Manager, NC911 Board Executive Director, and County 911 Director.
The 911 Primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Facility will consist of a 6,000 SF communications center on a four-acre site adjacent to the existing Franklin County Sheriff’s facility, communication towers, and storage facilities. Sitework will include new stormwater system, sanitary sewer system, water lines, and electrical service to the building. New sidewalks, driveways, and parking lots will also be provided.
The non-hardened portion of the building will be structural steel framed on steel deck while the floor will consist of slab on grade concrete with conventional concrete spread footings. The hardened portion of the building will consist of a reinforced concrete masonry wall system. The roof structure will consist of structural steel framed with concrete slab on composite steel deck with PVC roofing systems. The exterior façade will be a mixture of brick, pre-cast concrete, cementitious panels, aluminum windows, storefront, and curtainwall systems.
This project is funded through a grant funding award from the North Carolina 911 Board. SG provided the programming, schematic design, design development, construction administration, and permitting documents for this new facility.
The facility is scheduled to open in December 2022.
If you would like to learn more about Franklin County, click here.
To learn more about SG’s work in the Public Safety Sector, please click here.
T&M Associates Infrastructure Case Study Highlights Manavon Elementary School and Phoenixville Area Early Learning Center
T&M Associates, one of SCHRADERGROUP’s go-to consultants for Site and Civil Engineering, recently published an article dealing with how enhanced erosion and sediment control leads to resilient infrastructure.
This informative article uses a SCHRADERGROUP and T&M Associates project favorite, the Phoenixville Area School District’s (PASD) Manavon Elementary School and Phoenixville Area Early Learning Center as a case study for during- and post-construction erosion controls.
Interested in learning more? You can read the full article by clicking here.
Want to learn more about PASD’s Manavon Elementary and Phoenixville Area Early Learning Center? 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.
SCHRADERGROUP Announces Newly Registered Architect!
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is pleased to announce that another one of our Architectural Designers has successfully passed the Architect Registration Examination (ARE) and is now a Registered Architect in the state of Pennsylvania!
We would like to congratulate Tyler Corbley, AIA, LEED Green Associate on becoming the latest registered architect at SG! Tyler is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and began his time at SG as a summer intern before joining the team full time. Tyler works in the Philadelphia office.
During his time at SG, Tyler has been invaluable for his work in the education sector. Tyler’s successes extend beyond the work we do on projects as well, as he also helps with mentoring both SG summer interns and undergraduate students through PSU’s Stuckeman School mentoring program. We are excited to see what lies ahead for Tyler’s career.
Interested in joining the SG team? Check out what opportunities are available for you here.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends PSU’s Stuckeman School Career Day 2022
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) attended the Pennsylvania State University’s 36th annual Stuckeman School Career Day held on Monday, January 24th in the HUB-Robeson Center on Penn State’s Main Campus in State College, PA.
The SG team was represented by Managing Partner David Schrader (PSU Class of 1991) and team members Paige Geldrich (PSU Class of 2018) and Jillian Kreglow (PSU Class of 2021). The team was thrilled to catch up with some familiar faces and to have met so many bright, dedicated architecture students with promising portfolios. SG looks forward to hiring some of the students we met with as interns this upcoming summer.
The Stuckeman School Career Day is an annual event that allows professional firms to interact directly with PSU’s award-winning students. This exciting event provides students with an opportunity to network and explore potential career fields in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Graphic Design. SG was very happy to attend this event in person once again and to connect with the University’s great students.
SG has a diverse team of talented employees, some of whom are also graduates of the Penn State Stuckeman School. We are always grateful for the opportunity to connect with the future graduates of PSU as well as the many other great schools of architecture. Interested in joining the SG team? Check out what opportunities are available for you here.
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