Architectural Excellence:

The town of Lake Lure was in desperate need of a school campus. With no school in town, the children in the area had to be bused 30 miles to/from school. Classical Academy saw the need for a local school and began working on their charter. They received it in March and needed an entire campus by fall. Not only did they need space fast, but they had to comply with specific town structure regulations, including an ordinance that states, all buildings within city limits must have lap siding. M Space conducted a careful analysis of all available buildings to find all possible options to meet the school needs and town requirements. M Space provided Classical Academy with four pre-leased buildings. These buildings created an entire campus for the school and met their goal of starting classes in the fall. The four buildings provided the school with an administrative office and three classroom buildings with a total of twenty-one classrooms.

Technical Innovation:

The campus site is nestled in the mountains. There is only one narrow road that leads up the mountain to the campus, which sits on three different levels. M Space had to develop a creative plan to deliver and assemble the buildings. The narrow road and the three site levels did not leave any room for error. First, M Space widened the road up the mountain to ensure that the trucks with the modules could make it to the top. Next, they blocked the road off, and with a police escort brought the modules up one at a time. Once the module was on site, a translift was waiting to place the module on the foundation. Once the module was in place, the truck returned to the bottom for the next module. In addition, the site had stone steps that were over 100 years old. Delivery and installation had to take place without disturbing the stairs, which took a lot of planning and innovation. M Space was able to successfully assemble all 27 modules on the mountainside.

Cost Effectiveness/Energy Efficiency:

By using existing buildings that met all town requirements and customer requests, the school had their new campus in record time and saved money. The buildings were all currently in storage and available immediately, saving Classical Academy time. M Space selected buildings that could be refurbished inexpensively, to meet all requirements within the necessary timeframe. The school was thrilled with the building changes, particularly the fact that M Space was able to match all of the siding to give the campus a cohesive look and feel. Using existing buildings to create the school campus reduced the impact on the environment by avoiding unnecessary use of materials and energy that are required for new buildings. In addition, there are water saving fixtures. These help a great deal since there is a limited water supply on the mountain.

Project History:

The four buildings that make up this campus were chosen because they were available immediately, able to meet the town requirements and with a bit of creative planning, fit perfectly into the multi-level project site. Building one was leased to two different districts in the Northeast before going to Lake Lure. Both customers used the building for temporary space during renovations. Buildings two and three were both previously leased to a school district in NC. These buildings provided classroom space for the over flow of students while the school district built an additional facility. Lastly, building four was used as a sales office for a custom home builder in the mid-Atlantic region before being used as administrative space for this project. To date, these buildings have served five customers and M Space looks forward to repurposing them again in the future.