“If you had built a house in 1970, chances are your “modern” kitchen would have been equipped with an electric range, refrigerator, and a few other luxuries. The wallpaper might have been large oversized yellow flowers paired with avocado green or harvest gold appliances. Formica counter tops. Just enough storage. Possibly a small but clunky TV or radio on the counter. If this were your kitchen, by now you would have given serious thought to a remodel. Move from the kitchen to the science lab. You wouldn’t have one of those at your house, but there are five of them at your school, Lake Catholic. They are also in need of a remodel for some of the same reasons, but for many more that impact education for 850 students every day.”
Lake Catholic High School in Mentor, Ohio had been talking about renovating the existing science labs for several years. Last November, talk turned into progress with proposed layouts and budgets. There were several meetings with the building principal, head of maintenance, business manager and science teachers to discuss layout options and how to best bring all five science rooms up to date with new laboratory casework and furniture.
The main request from the science staff was to re-arrange the rooms so there would be a separate lab space and lecture area in each room and from there, provide as much storage space as possible. Several layouts and budgets were proposed and a final meeting determined the best option for each room.
To help fund the project, Farnham Equipment Company, with Institutional Casework, Inc., provided rendered drawings of the proposed new labs to be used in fundraising efforts. Lake Catholic quickly raised the funds to renovate all five science laboratories during the summer of 2015.
Lake Catholic took this project on themselves acting as their own general contractor. FEC worked with Lake Catholic’s subcontractors to coordinate work with the other trades. The main challenge to overcome was the existing mechanical/electrical outlets were to stay at the current locations. This took several meeting/site visits to be sure that all services would be covered and able to chase to the new locations.
Lake Catholic removed all the existing cabinets and counter tops, installed new flooring, and painted all the rooms. Our FEC installation team installed new Empire Oak CampbellRhea Casework and Durcon Epoxy Resin Counter Tops from Institutional Casework, Inc. out of Pairs, TN. The new casework is housed in two biology rooms, a general chemistry room, advanced chemistry room and physics laboratory.
Head of maintenance, Ed Zizelman stated at completion of the project:
“I could not have been any more impressed with Farnham Equipment Company from design to install they are a professional turnkey operation.”
Lake Catholic High School Science Labs: Before Summer 2015 Renovation
ICI Scientific, CampbellRhea Rendered Drawings:
Lake Catholic High School’s New Science Labs, Completed Summer 2015
0 Comments