Antinozzi Associates Completes Work on Orville H. Platt High School
February 20, 2018 – Antinozzi Associates has announced the completion of the renovation and expansion of the Orville H. Platt High School in Meriden, Connecticut.

Originally built in 1958, the Orville H. Platt High School had not seen many changes to it during the fifty-some years it had served the students of Meriden. As a result, an extensive modernization program was developed to bring the facility up to the educational standards of the 21st century.

Given the extensive amount of demolition, renovation, and new construction, this $112 million, 260,000 square-foot project was built in four one-year phases. The 1,110 student high school now features a new two-story freshman academy and a three-story upper academy wing with a dramatic glass-walled library located to conveniently serve the needs of all the students.

The existing gymnasium, auditorium, and natatorium were completely renovated as well, while a new cafeteria was constructed to the rear of the school to take advantage of the vistas overlooking the athletic fields. Site improvements included revisions to the vehicular flow to separate car and bus traffic to direct students to the two main entry points at the school; thereby simplifying the arrival and departure process each day. These two entrances, one at the main lobby and one at a major three-level stairway, are design features of the school and serve as circulation hubs to easily direct students to all sections of this large facility.

“Antinozzi Associates faithfully executed our written educational specification in a manner that far exceeded our expectations. The final product is attractive, functional, and has enlivened the teaching and learning experiences of our students and staff,” says Glen LaMontagne, Board of Education Project Facilitator for the city of Meriden, Connecticut.

Antinozzi Associates designed the facility to adhere to the standards put in place by the State of Connecticut High Performance Building Guidelines, achieving 24.5% better energy performance than Code, reducing potable water usage by 30%, and recycling or salvaging 50% of construction and demolition debris.

With this project, the goal was not only to create a more modern facility but also to invite collaboration between both students and faculty. Classrooms for Mathematics, English, World Languages, and Social Studies were designed with the same layout and mindset of establishing flexibility, functionality and cohesion for all the academic areas.

Paul Antinozzi, President of Antinozzi Associates addressed the work put forth by his staff. “As with most school projects, the budget is always a key concern – which was no different for Platt High School. However, our staff worked very diligently to choose sustainable and cost effective solutions when designing this project to produce the most cost effective outcome possible.”

Construction was completed this past August to begin the 2017-2018 academic year.

About Antinozzi Associates: Antinozzi Associates has more than six decades of design leadership in commercial, institutional, educational and multi-family residential architecture. Services include architecture, interior design, master planning, space planning, programming, project management, pre-referendum services, feasibility studies, site analysis, consultant coordination, bid evaluations, construction consultation and FF&E services.