The Education studio in our Newport Beach office was able to put on their Lionakis masks and have a successful, socially distanced site visit to Orange High School. General Contractor, Pinner Construction, has made significant construction progress over the last couple of months for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Center which will finally be wrapping up construction in the next couple of weeks to begin hosting students in November!

This Professional Development opportunity not only allowed the Education Studio to see the building up close, but also allowed the group to discuss lessons learned, including several infrastructure challenges this building faced with Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing systems.

The STEM Center is the first significant project built on the campus in over 50 years! It will include 12 labs to host the campus’ science programs, each housing as many as 40 students. The labs will include flexible furniture which can be easily re-organized dependent upon whether a lecture, lab or group activity is being taught. Four Chemistry labs will be housed on the first floor with eight labs for other subjects on the second. The classrooms will also have water, gas and cameras capable of broadcasting teacher demonstrations to monitors around the room.

A big thanks to Project Manager, Dan Eitman, who coordinated this site visit so that it could occur in a safe manner with socially distanced practices in place. The next time the Education Studio visits the campus, this project will be complete!

Check back here for the grand opening update as final completion inches closer!