In early 2018, the Waukee School District passed a $100M+ bond referendum for a new 2nd high school in their district. This project includes a new state-of-the-art 350,000 sq ft high school as well as new a new stadium and outdoor athletic complex.

This project is currently “on the boards” and is due to be issued for bids at the end of July 2018. The project includes many challenging features for the engineering team. A variable air volume (VAV) HVAC system will be utilized along with a central chilled water system for cooling and a central hot water boiler system for heating. Even though this type of system has a much higher first cost, the District wanted to take advantage of the greater energy efficiency and greater comfort control this type of system offers. Bluestone is working with MidAmerican Energy to capture energy efficiency incentives to offset this system’s higher first cost.

The district also wanted to move their central data center into this building. This required the design team to incorporate mission critical HVAC and power systems into the building design to insure uninterrupted, 24/7 operation of the data center. Bluestone was able to leverage the generator system used for the building’s FEMA required storm shelter for the data center’s back-up power source.