GALAXY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - 2014

The most unique feature of this school is the main entry tilt-up panels that consist of two 39-foot high tilt-up panels. The first tilt-up panel is 51 feet wide, and the second tilt-up panel is 40 feet wide. The Architect incorporated into these tilt-up panels 2-feet wide angled legs from the second floor down, a form liner, and a massive opening from the second floor up.

The panel specialty engineer's biggest challenge was to design the panel's angled legs as structural columns in lieu of standard panel legs. As a result, a considerable amount of additional reinforcement was put into them. In addition, the widest panel (51-feet wide) has a massive 2nd floor opening (39-feet wide by 11-feet high), which presented additional challenges to the specialty engineer as well as the lifting and bracing engineer.

Two other distinctive features are the school's name recessed into the tilt-up panels facing Interstate I-95 highway, and the sloped tilt-up panels along I-95 in contrast with the flat classroom wings’ tilt-up panels.

The above-mentioned panels became the most recognizable feature of the building and a community symbol.