NRMCA, Missouri Team Up to Discuss Benefts of ICFs in School Construction

The Concrete Council of St. Louis and NRMCA recently partnered with two local school districts to share their first ever insulating concrete form (ICF) school projects currently being built in Missouri. Over 85 local architects, engineers, contractors, school administrators and concrete industry personnel, were given tours of the schools: Zitzman Elementary School in Pacific and Hancock Elementary School in St. Louis, to learn firsthand how these innovative insulated concrete systems have been integrated into each project.

In each case, the districts worked closely with their respective construction management team from Navigate Building Solutions to assess the value and benefits of ICFs. Oliver “Skip” Dulle, executive director of the Concrete Council of St. Louis, arranged for comparative costing from NRMCA’s Build With Strength program which demonstrated first cost benefits and construction time savings, reducing construction by 45 days.

Al Kirchofer, CFO of Meramec Valley School District, had first experienced the extreme quiet of ICF buildings when he visited a first responder facility several years ago on the East Coast. “I asked the dispatchers what kind of building is this," Kirchofer related. “It was so quiet.” A visit to one of several Net Zero Energy ICF schools in Kentucky helped school administrators better understand how lower operating costs and better-quality learning environments further informed the decision to build with ICFs.

Cory Bextermueller, project director for Navigate, outlined the cost and time savings realized in building with ICFs, and Donn Thompson, senior director building innovations for NRMCA, shared examples of many ICF schools and their continued ability to return funds back to school programs through the operating savings realized with these cost effective school construction strategies.

For more information, contact Donn Thompson at dthompson@nrmca.org.