Center for Leadership and Learning & “Build Smart” Facilities Master Plan

Urban Collage/Lord Aeck Sargent performed program and project management for the construction of a new Atlanta Public Schools headquarters, the Center for Leadership and Learning (CLL).

The eight-story facility encompasses 232,000 sf (including 3,000 sf of ground-floor retail space), includes a 475-space parking deck, and accommodates more than 650 staffers from 12 different departments. Designed with an open floor plate around a central service core, the building provides maximum flexibility for a system that has widely varied spacial requirements among its disparate departments.

The facility cost just under $33 million to build and was completedon schedule and under budget. UC/LAS coordinated efforts between several different departments within APS and with the developer, Carter and Associates, and the contractor, Russell/Hardin, j.v.

Since 1997, UC/LAS has worked in an ongoing role as facilities planning/programming consultant for all Atlanta Public Schools facilities. More recently, the firm was responsible for the management of a comprehensive system-wide Facility Master Plan (known as “The Build Smart Project”). The Facilities Master Plan is a five-year implementation program intended to comprehensively catalog and assess the current and future facility needs of all of the Pre K-12 instructional programs. The current APS system, two years into Build Smart implementation, consists of 95 school facilities with an enrollment of approximately 58,000 students. The firm has also overseen the Feasibility Study and design of the new Central Office Building and the development of a comprehensive Athletics Plan and Property Management Plan for all discontinued school sites.

In addition, UC/LAS currently oversees implementation of the Build Smart Facilities Plan serving as design project manager for the creation of all design narratives for new and renovated facilities.

Practice Areas