Less than a year after a team of LAN architects opened a new office in southern New Jersey, they find themselves both extremely busy and embraced by the local community. LAN Associates is a nearly 100 employee architecture and engineering firm with a diverse portfolio that has always had a wide geographical reach in the tri state area. One of its newest offices, which is in Voorhees, NJ, is building on company strengths and bringing LAN’s signature skill set to new regions within the garden state.
LAN Associates is widely known as an educational powerhouse, with decades of architecture and engineering experience in new school design, additions, and renovations. Almost as soon as the Voorhees office was set up, the team began solidifying that same reputation among school districts in southern New Jersey. Fast forward a matter of months and LAN’s Voorhees office is the architect of record for half a dozen school districts, including the recent appointment with Willingboro Borough Public Schools, and is working on a host of significant projects.
In their new hometown of Voorhees, LAN has been assisting with redistricting which will centralize the district’s kindergarten program. To support this effort LAN is designing a major kindergarten wing addition. In the same town, the LAN team is designing a maintenance building for the district’s facilities team and an exterior envelope restoration project for the middle school.
With an array of projects on the board, the team is busy outside Voorhees as well. In Monroe Township, LAN is renovating a wing in their high school for a child study team program as well as working on roof and envelope projects at two sites.
At the historic Haddonfield High School, the team just completed a mechanical unit addition, courtyard improvements, and they are doing a building envelope restoration on the 1926 structure. The envelope restoration is considered a historic preservation project and will go through the State Historic Preservation Office, and the courtyard provides outdoor seating for the school’s cafeteria and includes a tiered seating area for outdoor learning.
In Winslow, LAN completed major designs for HVAC system upgrades, including full bipolar ionization for the entire district including eight schools and their board offices. For this project, the southern New Jersey team utilized LAN’s full-service capabilities to help the district with their goal to impose measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 before reopening.
With the impact of COVID-19 raising many questions about school design, LAN Associates’ expansion comes at a pivotal time for school districts. COVID-19’s impact on the built environment is a subject LAN has studied from every angle, and as a leader in K-12 school design, COVID-19 and educational facilities is an area of expertise LAN’s professionals are uniquely qualified to address. As a full-service firm, LAN has provided everything from social distancing and re-entry plans to HVAC modifications for improved ventilation.
“We have moved past the phase where schools are asking us if they need to act on modifications to address COVID-19,” said Jeff Potter, LAN Architect who was recently promoted to Associate in the Voorhees office. “It’s understood that some changes will need to be made, and with $177 billion in recent federal funding allocated to schools in the form of ESSER funds, many schools now have the capital to make those needed changes. The goal has shifted to long term plans that incorporate enhancements to the student’s learning atmosphere and well-being as students and teachers begin to return permanently.”
Jeff Potter is one of two recent promotions at LAN stemming from the success of the new Southern New Jersey office. After his work in leading the new office to success, LAN Architect Ron Schwenke was promoted to Assistant Vice President of LAN. Promoted staff is not the only area of growth at LAN’s newest office; with all the project awards, the team is racing to fill new positions at the firm including architectural and administrative staff.
“We are in the middle of a serious growth spurt,” said Schwenke when asked about the new LAN location. “We are honored to have been so well embraced by the community which has trusted us with numerous projects. Our next step is to fill more southern New Jersey roles within the LAN organization and continue to ensure we provide a level of service that exceeds our clients’ expectations.”
To get in contact with LAN’s southern New Jersey office follow the link below.
