The Nathan Hale Elementary School Linked Annex project is a new, 41,338 sq. ft. three-story addition and renovation to the existing school. The addition was based on a Linked Annex prototype developed by the Public Building Commission of Chicago and was designed to serve approximately 360 CPS students. The annex houses 11 standard classrooms, a computer classroom, an art classroom, two student pull-out rooms, two new business offices, cooking kitchen with student dining facilities, storage areas, and toilet facilities. The renovation included renovations to the existing art room and lunch room, as well as the installation of an elevator. Additionally, the scope of the project included the installation of sound attenuation panels in the auditorium.
dbHMS designed new HVAC systems for the annex. A new air cooled chiller was designed to provide chilled water for both the annex and existing school. Steam to water heat exchangers were designed to create hot water for the new annex using the existing schools steam boilers. Air handling units along with terminal variable air volume units were designed to provide warm or cool fresh air to each of the occupied spaces. Building controls include a stand-alone DDC system in the annex. New electrical service and upgrades to emergency systems were provided, as well as low voltage wiring and terminations per CPS standards. The existing building fire alarm panel was expanded to serve new devices for the addition. New water service was designed to replace the existing water service to feed both the existing and the new building. The annex is fully sprinkled with a new combined water service which branches to the new fire pump to serve wet-pipe zones within the addition. The Nathan Hale Elementary School Addition received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED©) for Schools v2009 Gold level certification.