Story

Ann Arbor Public Schools’ LEED certified Skyline High School, scheduled for completion in May 2008, incorporates all state-of-the-art elements expected in modern comprehensive high schools. Wireless technology, career pathways magnet classrooms, full performance theater, swimming pool, 2 gyms, geothermal HVAC systems and a full compliment of outdoor athletic facilities including a "bowl stadium" are just a few of the design highlights. Skyline began with extraordinary planning to provide minimal removal of an old growth hardwood forest and a premier traffic safety planning effort to incorporate three roundabout intersections approaching the site for safe ingress/egress. It also moved forward with an AAPS/ TMP Architecture/ Granger team commitment to deliver all promised elements within an established voter-approved budget. When hit by the "Perfect Economic Storm," resulting from unprecedented material shortages caused by Hurricane Katrina and price escalation due to overseas demand, AAPS looked to Granger to provide leadership to develop a recovery plan for the structural bid package. Working as a team with AAPS and TMP Architecture, Granger developed alternative design and budget scenarios to recover from these overages and still finish the project within AAPS’s available bond funds. No excuses, no blame, just a rigorous can-do problem solving approach to cost recovery, budget analysis and value management led the team back on track to completing Skyline with all the elements promised... PLUS the largest horizontal geothemal HVAC heating system we know of in the United States; projected to pay for itself in less than 10 years! But don't just take our word on it, contact AAPS’ Superintendent Todd Roberts or Facility Director Randy Trent to learn, first hand, about the positive role Granger played in creative, effective solutions to the challenges their project posed.