Career Institute North

After the Walnut Hill Elementary school sustained tornado damage in 2019, the 55,000 square foot building was rendered unusable and the school district decided to rebuild the school to serve grades 9 through 12. The new Career Institute will prepare students for careers in aviation, automotive technology, EMT, firefighting, culinary arts, robotics, healthcare, cybersecurity, software development, construction, and architecture. The facility will operate as a satellite campus, serving 1,600 students from five other high schools each day.

Largo’s scope included renovation of the existing building and 110,000 square feet of new construction. The existing building received beam enlargement treatment and carbon fiber wrap reinforcing of beams, walls, and slabs. Seven buildings were constructed on site which consisted of 426 drilled piers, 6,434 lineal feet of formed grade beams, 62,263 square feet of slab on metal deck, 56,987 square feet of slab over void form, and 36,829 square feet of elevated crawlspace steel pan formed decks. Site work scope also included architectural exposed concrete stairs on foam, four tree wells, 29 light pole bases, and 32 bollard foundations. Largo is working with general contractor Turner/Source JV, WRA architects and Ponce Fuess structural engineers.