Project Frog Delivers 70,000 Square Feet of New Public School Facilities in California; Leverages Industrialized Construction to Automate Building Process
Project Frog , a leader in developing scalable Industrialized Construction (IC) solutions with an integrated building system product and technology approach, today announced it is nearing completion of 70,000 square feet of new public school facilities throughout California.
Project Frog, a leader in developing scalable Industrialized Construction (IC) solutions with an integrated building system product and technology approach, today announced it is nearing completion of 70,000 square feet of new public school facilities throughout California. Working with the Morgan Hill and Oakland Unified School Districts in Northern California, and the Long Beach Unified School District in Southern California, Project Frog is involved in the creation of 42 new classrooms in seven separate buildings that will house general education, math, music, and science.
“School construction is always a challenge,” said Drew Buechley, president and CEO of Project Frog. “With rigorous approval processes, limited budgets and short build windows, it’s a situation that is ripe for marginalized results. However, with our integrated building platform and our leading-edge technology approach, we’re able to quickly deliver a high-quality, state-of-the-art environment that promotes learning.”
Kit-of-Parts Approach to Industrialized Construction
The company’s innovative, componentized Kit-of-Parts system allows clients to design and deploy buildings in short timeframes, ideal for the limited build windows associated with K-12 public schools. These classroom buildings were designed, fabricated and delivered under Project Frog’s Industrialized Construction (IC) process, focused on a Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) approach for easy off-site fabrication and on-site installation.
During manufacturing, as part of the overall IC process, all parts are actively tracked, providing a systematic quality control and feedback loop, involving both Frog’s design and construction teams, to ensure continuous improvement. Once fabrication is complete, delivery of the components is fully coordinated with the general contractor and parts are delivered Just-in-Time (JIT) to the site, fitting within general contractors’ sequence and build schedule.
“For architects working on school projects, a flexible Kit-of-Parts building system brings predictability to the design process and allows the system to scale across various building typologies, addressing numerous building sizes and layouts,” said Dara Douraghi, vice president of architecture and engineering at Project Frog.
In addition, Project Frog offers a two-story Pre-Checked (PC) classroom building, facilitating the Division of School Architect’s (DSA) review process. This two-story PC building was most recently used at Fremont High School in the Oakland Unified School District.
Challenging Construction Landscape
Unlike most prefabricated solutions, which are inflexible in terms of design variations, Project Frog’s Kit-of-Parts solution offers design flexibility, giving architects the opportunity to arrange components and easily meet specific needs.
“Architects aren’t typically huge fans of pre-fab solutions, simply because our design opportunities can be limited,” said Todd Walter, project director for McKim Design Group and lead architect for the Jackson Academy of Music in Morgan Hill. “The team was faced with the typical public-school challenges – adhering to strict DSA standards, yet the Project Frog solution allowed us to integrate state-of-the-art design elements to create an innovative and functional learning environment, with higher quality of construction possible through off-site fabrication. Upon completion, the building will be an aesthetically pleasing structure without added time or cost.”
Sato Academy for Mathematics and Science in Long Beach needed an extensive program to be distributed throughout a one-story building. Using Frog’s system, architects were able to create a visually interesting design, including 16 classrooms and lab spaces, across three separate buildings under one expansive butterfly roof, with buildings connected by two outdoor breezeways. Throughout the design and engineering phase, the team used Project Frog’s technology and design tools to facilitate the decision-making process and efficiently coordinate the overall design with various stakeholders. The end result was a unique and inviting building for students at Sato Academy.
About Project Frog
Project Frog, a San Francisco, California-based product and technology company founded in 2006, delivers the platform, software and integration tools needed for the Industrialized Construction (IC) industry to drive mass customization at scale. By focusing on the integration of product and technology methodology, Project Frog automates design and configuration, manufacturing interfaces, and other redundant processes in the AEC world. Over the last 13 years, Project Frog’s deep industry experience and team of architects, engineers, supply chain managers and field experts have transformed the chaos of design and construction to a straightforward science, leading to the creation of its Industrialized Construction-as-a-Service (ICaaSSM) platform. Project Frog is actively involved in projects in the education, healthcare, retail, QSR and data center markets. For more information, visit www.projectfrog.com.
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