Category: News
SCHRADERGROUP Featured in BD+C 40th Annual Giants 300 Report
We’re excited to announce that Building Design + Construction Magazine’s 40th Annual Giants 300 Report featured SCHRADERGROUP architecture among their top 100 architecture firms. The annual report ranks top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue. Ranked #97 overall, SG jumped to #12 amongst the Top Data Center AEC firms. This ranking is a reflection of the quantity of public mission critical facility designed by the firm. We are honored to be recognized, and will continue to keep pace with the leaders in our industry.
Topping-off Ceremony Conducted for SCHRADERGROUP Project
A topping-off ceremony marking the placement of the final steel beam for the new Dare and Tyrrell County Regional Emergency Communication Center and Dare County Emergency Operation Center was conducted last week at the project site in Manteo, North Carolina. Designed by SCHRADEGROUP (SG) with support from the Norfolk-based firm of Lyall Design Architects, the 18,200 SF facility will provide space for services and departments that include a Regional 9-1-1 Communication Center, an Emergency Operations Center, County Emergency Management Agency, County Fire Marshal, County Emergency Medical Services, and a County Joint Information Center.
SCHRADERGROUP Welcomes New Team Member
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is pleased to welcome former summer intern Jeremy Ross back to the team as a permanent employee. Jeremy, who graduated this spring with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Pennsylvania State University, rejoins the firm as an architectural designer.
To date, Jeremy’s experience spans from feasibility studies and conceptual design through to construction documentation and administration primarily for the academic and commercial markets. Adept at working with a variety of design software, his particular expertise in Revit is extremely valuable for the implementation of design strategies as well as in project production.
We are happy to have Jeremy as a permanent addition to our team, and look forward to his contributions!
SCHRADERGROUP Attends Groundbreaking for Additions and Renovations to Middle School
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) was pleased to be in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony for additions and renovations to the Holland Middle School in Council Rock School District, Newtown, Pennsylvania. Anticipated to be complete in 2019, the project involves renovations to approximately 140,000 SF as well as an addition of 44,000 SF. The renovations and additions are a result of an effort by the District to consolidate three middle school populations into two facilities. Program additions to Holland Middle School include an auditorium with balcony seating, new spaces for music, an auxiliary gymnasium, fitness room, additional classrooms, and a new administration area. The interior of the building will be completely renovated to reflect twenty-first century learning styles while the exterior of the building will updated with a new, contemporary skin. New windows will introduce daylighting throughout the facility.
SCHRADERGROUP Celebrates 12 Years
This spring marks 12 years since SCHRADERGROUP (SG) opened our doors in a revitalized industrial building in Manayunk, Pennsylvania. In that time, we expanded our original space, then moved into a larger space, and recently expanded and renovated the larger space. We’ve grown to 21 employees and opened branch offices in Lancaster, Baltimore and Wilmington. We continue to increase our presence nationally through our public safety/mission critical work, and have completed K-12 and higher education projects throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. We’ve faced some challenging economic times, internal ‘growing pains’ that come with expansion, and the day-to-day trials inherent to running a service-oriented business. But we’ve also won awards for our work, watched staff grow professionally and personally, and learned quite a bit about how to run a better business. At the end of the day or, in this case, at our twelfth year, we pause to reflect on what makes us keep at it. And we think about the joyous students moving into a brand new or much-improved, renovated school. Or the law enforcement and mission critical employees who move into a safe, ergonomic, state-of-the-art facility and know that they will be able to provide the best service possible to their communities. In these moments, we are thankful and honored to be a part of making good things happen with great clients who place their trust in our team. And in these moments, we look forward to the years ahead and to the exciting projects and fantastic clients to come. Congratulations, SG, thanks to all of the clients we’ve served, and thanks also to the trusted partners who serve alongside us!
SCHRADERGROUP Principal Published in STRUCTURE Magazine
An article about a recently completed SCHRADERGROUP (SG) project, the restoration of the County courthouse dome in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was featured in the May 2016 issue of STRUCTURE Magazine. Authored by firm principal, Tom Forsberg, PE, the article describes the process undertaken to repair water damage affecting the structural framework of the dome and the subsequent restoration of the roof and crowning statue of Justitia, Lady Justice.
“The project certainly came with challenges,” says Tom. “But it was incredibly fulfilling to make a contribution towards preserving a piece of Lancaster City’s iconic skyline.”
To read the article and learn about this interesting project, visit STRUCTURE Magazine or download the article here.
SCHRADERGROUP Celebrates Expanded and Renovated Office Space
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) has, since our inception, been located in Manayunk, Pennsylvania – part of a corridor of communities that once served as the industrial base for Philadelphia. The office is located in one of the original Civil War era masonry and heavy timber structures, previously serving an industrial purpose. Recently, the firm had the opportunity to expand into an adjacent space and, along with nearly doubling the size of the office, to complete a renovation of the now-adjoining spaces.
“We seemed to fall prey to being ‘the cobbler’s children who have no shoes,’” said firm principal and managing partner David Schrader. “Although we are a firm of architects and designers, we were working in a space that was not well-designed; it was too small and not terribly functional. The expansion and renovation really has improved the way the office works. And now it looks like a space that befits a company of designers!”
Coming to work in a newly-expanded and renovated space was a great way to kick off the new year. If you’re ever in “The ‘Yunk,” we hope you’ll stop by to see us!
SCHRADERGROUP Principal Co-presents at AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice Fall Conference
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) managing principal David Schrader, AIA, LEED AP, co-presented at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Justice (AAJ) 2015 fall conference held in Miami, Florida. The session, entitled “The Next Generation of Emergency Communication and Operation Centers: Consolidating Services,” discussed the critical nature of the consolidated functions of facilities at municipal, parish, county and state levels throughout the country.
Continued weather trends as well as concerns for domestic and national threats have heightened the status of emergency facilities and increased the number of services provided by these organizations. With an increased focus on emergency preparedness, the required technical and communication connectivity of the various supported agencies is challenging prior approaches to facility design. Further, increased need to staff, maintain and support these functions has brought the facilities closer to the urban fabric. The program presented at the AIA AAJ conference demonstrated recent design innovations developed to meet changing concerns through the examination of three recently built consolidated emergency response facilities.
Learning objectives for the session included:
- Understanding the challenges of the multiple client agencies housed within the next generation of facility.
- Discussing the code applications and recommendations utilized to develop contemporary emergency response centers.
- Developing a sense of the hardening requirements and system redundancies required of a facility of this type.
- Understanding the forces driving the consolidation of these services with other municipal functions.
One of the projects used as a case study for the presentation, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) State Emergency Operations Center, is designed by SG and currently nearing completion of construction. The project was featured in Justice Facilities Review 2014, published by the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Justice. For more information about the PEMA State Emergency Operations Center, please visit our website.
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) State Emergency Operations Center, nearing completion
Elementary School Project Named Outstanding Design in Architectural Portfolio
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is pleased to announce that our Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School new facility design for Bristol Township School District, Levittown, Pennsylvania, has been named an Outstanding Design in the 2015 American School & University Architectural Portfolio.
Architectural Portfolio, the premier showcase celebrating the best in education design, features over 100 projects in the November issue of American School & University magazine.
The new Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School is a product of a prototype design developed by the design team to allow for simultaneous construction of three new elementary schools replacing nine existing outdated and aging neighborhood elementary schools. SG concurrently designed two sister schools, James Buchanan and Mary Devine Elementary Schools, at the same time as the Emerson project. While Emerson and Buchanan will be completed before the end of this year, the Mary Devine project construction process follows slightly behind the others and will not be put into use until the new year.
Main entry
History Wall
Learning Stairs
To learn more about the Bristol Township Elementary School projects, check out the November edition of American School & University or visit our website.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends Groundbreaking for New Elementary School
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) was pleased to be in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Early Learning Center and Elementary School to be constructed in the Phoenixville Area School District (PASD). Presently under construction and anticipated to be complete by August of 2017, the new 152,500 SF facility will support two specific grade structures in a “school within a school” format: K-1 in an Early Learning Center, and 2-5 as an Elementary School.
Groundbreaking ceremony for the Phoenixville Area School District new Early Learning Center and Elementary School
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, firm principal David Schrader commented “Our design journey is over but now the construction journey begins. We look forward to the day, not too long from now, when we can walk into the completed facility and see the beaming smiles of the students of Phoenixville Area School District.”
The design for the school, already gaining a “Work in Progress Citation” from American School & University Architectural Portfolio 2014 as well as an “Honorable Mention” from Learning by Design in their Fall 2015 issue, creates a focus on literacy and learning in a non-standard learning environment. To learn more about this exciting project, please visit our website.