Norwich Technical High School

The Norwich Technical High School project included major additions and comprehensive renovations to convert an aging facility originally constructed as a girl’s parochial high school which had been used in the interim years as a community college, into a new technical high school facility. The scope of the project entailed demolition of 20,000 square feet of the existing facility and construction of over 120,000 square feet of new additions coupled with comprehensive renovations to the existing core facilities, resulting in a new 200,000 square foot, state-of-the-art technical high school.

The new building includes facilities to support both traditional high school curricula as well as a dozen technical education laboratories, supporting core construction and automotive trade programs as well as programs in CADD, graphic communications, health technology, cosmetology, retail management and entrepreneurship, pre-electrical engineering/audio visual technology and culinary arts. The building also includes dedicated facilities to support an adult nursing program, relocated from offsite.

Additions were detailed utilizing a combination of brick, cast stone and monumental ground faced cmu masonry and were designed to effectively wrap the original core building structure, creating a facility with an entirely new image.

Special attention was given to daylighting in the shop wing, which combined perimeter glazing with an innovative clerestory "sun scoop" providing generous but glare-free natural light to the interior instructional areas of the shops. The low-energy direct-indirect fluorescent luminaires are controlled by a daylight-responsive dimming control system to supplement daytime illumination on an as needed basis with minimal energy use. 

Overlooking the Thames River Valley in historic Norwich, Connecticut, the site program for the facility included comprehensive reconstruction and improvements to the parking, loading and bus queuing areas as well as streamlined vehicular and pedestrian circulation throughout the site. Athletic field improvements include new baseball, softball/ soccer fields and tennis courts. Existing wetlands and historic farmland/meadow remain undisturbed on the site; new farm stone walls were designed to complement the existing stone walls and portions of the existing historic farm walls were restored.