American Modular Systems Installs First GEN7 Two-Story School at Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach
American Modular Systems (AMS) installed the first-of-its kind, two-story prefabricated building at Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach on the Clara Barton Elementary School campus in Long Beach on Saturday, July 15th. The final eight modules of the 31,483-foot state-of-the-art campus were craned into place just a month and a half after the project’s groundbreaking. The new Educare school will serve low-income children in the Long Beach Unified School District with a full-day, year-round early learning program that helps prevent the achievement gap between children in poverty and their middle-income peers long before they enter kindergarten.
“We’re proud to have Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach as our first GEN7 Two-Story campus,” said Tony Sarich, VP of Operations for AMS and GEN7 Schools. “We introduced our GEN7 Two-Story solution last fall and were able to design, build and install a custom modular campus in less than five months—something that wouldn’t have been possible with conventional construction.”
The innovative campus design includes a two-story administration building with 25’ high ceilings and three single-story classroom buildings. The single-story buildings can accommodate 200 students in 16 open-concept classrooms that are bright, quiet and healthy, with abundant natural light, premium acoustics and fresh, clean air providing an inspired and positive learning environment for young children.
Through a collaborative design process, AMS was able to modularize the building design to deliver the same high-end concept faster and at a significantly lower cost than conventional construction.
Designed to be flexible, adaptable and sustainable, the buildings are fully customized to meet the school’s unique program needs. Once complete, the prefabricated campus will be indistinguishable from conventional construction.
District Architect, Brian Dougherty, said, the challenge at Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach was to meet very high design expectations while maintaining strict budget control on an occupied campus.
“Partnering early in the process with the District and AMS enabled us to optimize budget, schedule and design utilizing the GEN7 approach,” Dougherty said. “The modular construction delivery has significantly shortened the disruption of construction activity onsite while providing a legacy environment for the children and community.”
Designed to exceed California’s Green Building and Energy Code standards, GEN7 buildings are solar-ready, engineered to support future photovoltaic panels. The two-story administration building was test-set at the AMS factory to ensure a perfect alignment, and then dissembled for shipping Delivered 90% complete, the building will be finished onsite, with the elevator, staircase and overhangs installed in early August.
Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach is the 22nd school in the national Educare Learning Network, developed in partnership with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, UNITE LA, Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach Education Foundation, LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment, The Advancement Project, Buffett Early Childhood Fund and Ounce of Prevention Fund.