First opening its doors in 1953, West High School (originally known as Anchorage High School) is the oldest of the Anchorage School District’s eight major high schools. It houses approximately 1,900 students making it the second largest school in Alaska. Until the 1980’s when larger facilities were constructed, West’s 2,000 seat capacity auditorium and 4,500 seat capacity gymnasium made it the primary venue for concerts and sporting events. In an effort to increase the lifespan of both facilities, PDC undertook the task of upgrading both the gymnasium and auditorium to meet its modern needs. A total remodel of the gymnasium and both the gymnasium and auditorium fan room ventilation systems was conducted.
To ensure the new ventilation systems would fit into existing spaces, we leveraged our experience in Building Information Modeling (BIM) to accurately coordinate/review the new air handling layouts through a combination of virtual reality and 3D modeling.