In September, Architect Jeff Venezia unveiled designs for the new Memorial Elementary School in East Brunswick, New Jersey, a facility that will be environmentally friendly in more ways than one. “This is the first entirely new school that has been built in East Brunswick since the 1960s,” said Venezia of the project. “We really wanted to bring it up to 2010 standards.”
The original Memorial Elementary School has been left in a state of disrepair since a fire caused extensive damage in July 2008. School officials considered renovating the building, but said asbestos, soot and chemicals made it nearly impossible to bring it up to code.
Carcinogenic asbestos has been linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the chest and abdomen, making its removal a costly necessity regardless of whether the school was renovated or demolished, so East Brunswick voters approved an $18 million bond to build a new school in October 2009. The tax impact is $58 on a home assessed at $100,000.
Before the new two-story, 82,000- square-foot facility can be built, the old building will need asbestos abatement so that no toxic fibers are released during demolition. These fibers become easily airborne when asbestos is disturbed and can cause pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs known as the pleura.
The new school will include nine additional classrooms, a preschool wing, a separate gymnasium, new playground equipment and a larger, state-of-the-art media center. Construction is scheduled to begin in October, and the school is expected to open in September 2012.