Building a First
The Alliance Academy for Innovation is Forsyth County Schools’ first STEM high school. A second phase of construction included adding a three-story parking deck to the active and occupied campus.
An Uphill Battle with the Site
Alliance Academy was built on a 43-acre new, elevated site that encompassed wetlands and a 100 foot elevation change from one end to the other. In order to prepare this challenging site for construction, a significant site balancing effort and massive site and building foundation walls were required. With some unsuitable soil to battle as well, our team mined soil from all over the site to support the design of the MSE site walls. We worked tirelessly with the civil engineer to adjust grades so that the entire site was balanced, which produced a significant cost savings for the owner.
Not Your Average High School
Alliance Academy has 64 instructional units, across five interest-themed academies including: aerospace/logistics, criminal justice/law, hospitality/design, healthcare/first responders, and mechatronics/energy. The instruction units feature state-of-the-art equipment like flight simulators, a wind tunnel, an ambulance simulator and a courtroom with a CSI laboratory. There are also labs designed for teaching students about cyber-security, virtual reality and graphic design. Both the school and the parking deck received First Place Build Georgia Award recognition.
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