Newport News Shipbuilding – Apprenticeship School

Established in 1919, Newport News Apprenticeship Shipbuilding School is a four-year vocational school that trains students for careers in the shipbuilding industry. The school’s parent company is Huntington Ingalls Industries and its division Newport News Shipbuilding, the nation’s sole builder of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the world’s largest warships. More than two-thirds of the schools’ graduates go on to work at the shipyard. The school and its 750-plus students are being moved from the Newport News shipyard to a new campus under construction in a four-block area in downtown Newport News. For its new facility, the school asked Convergent Technologies to provide design services for audiovisual systems with supporting infrastructure for the four-story building, including construction documents, costs estimates, and bidding review. Convergent will finish the project with construction administration of the installed systems. Spaces receiving design services include sixteen regular classrooms, two distance-learning classrooms, a computer lab, gymnasium, two conference rooms, multipurpose rooms, and offices. Construction on the new school and campus complex began in May 2012; completion is expected in the third quarter of 2013.

Architect: Rancom Wildman Architects, PLC
Location: Newport News, Virginia
Project Size: 80,000 GSF
Construction Cost: $72 MILLION