West Hartford, CT
The American School for the Deaf (ASD) has been dedicated to moving their campus forward, recognizing the need for major areas of improvement to maintain the quality of education for their unique community of students. Over the last decade, they partnered with Loureiro Engineering Associates (LEA) for a series of unique projects across campus geared toward modernization — driven by our comprehensive experience with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) projects.
The first of several phases involved the removal of a massive, 20th-century building in significant despair to create an all-new, state-of-the-art administration building. This demolition created additional space for the construction of a new courtyard for student activities and outdoor teaching. The next phase was alterations to the entrance boulevard, in which LEA took a proactive approach to the design to strategically accommodate provisions for future projects.
In 2020, the ASD embarked on the reconstruction of an important monument that had been in storage for decades, which was to be located prominently at the front entrance of the campus. With visions of the dramatic structure proudly displaying on the school’s broad front lawn, LEA worked with conservation specialists to bring the 20-foot-tall monument back to life, melding old and new materials of granite, marble, and bronze to honor the school founder, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
A follow-up on the project involved a brand-new playground area, which presented unique considerations to the surrounding community. With various concerns regarding lighting and noise, Loureiro conducted various public outreach to ease tensions through transparency to the benefit of the community as a whole.
With the site itself being very confined within the town of West Hartford, a heightened cognizance toward the neighboring residences extended across every project throughout the partnership. LEA worked to ensure the developing plans not only satisfied the needs of the ASD, but fit within the fabric of the surrounding community as well.
Over the last 13 years, Loureiro has continued to elevate its relationship with ASD, bringing the expertise of our vertically-integrated teams through a single point of contact. We’ve done our due diligence to develop an understanding of the needs of ASD to be an invaluable resource, working with the town on their behalf to demonstrate and follow through on the benefit to the entire community.
