Liberty-Benton Local Schools began constructing a new K-8 school and an addition in 2021. Constructed continued throughout the early stages of 2023, managed by Gilbane Building Company and designed by SHP Leading Design. This project included several scopes of work that Farnham Equipment Company (FEC) received awards for auditorium seating, casework, bleachers, and custom millwork.
When you first enter the building, you will see custom millwork from Stevens Industries at the receptionist’s desks. Making your way through the rest of the new facility, the classrooms, art rooms, media center, storage centers and more are all filled with Stevens Advantage educational casework. The primary finish for the casework is a neutral-toned Fusian Maple which complements the blue colors.
Moving along into the dining area, there is custom millwork with the lettering and edges from Hoge. This custom millwork includes trim along the top and the words “Eagles Nest” to give an eye-catching piece to the dining area. Traveling down the corridor towards the auditorium, FEC provided additional casework along the way, with additional wood paneling and the phrase “Liberty Benton Auditorium”. Once in the new auditorium, staff and students can notice additional millwork at the front of the stage, with an edge trim with a maple finish, arched wall caps and arched plastic laminate wall panels. Throughout these areas, the added prefinished maple millwork adds a level of professionalism and customization that is quite striking to incoming visitors of the school.
The auditorium is filled with 800 Quattro seats from Hussey Seating Company (HSC). These seats came in a Navy fabric, wooden armrests and wooden end panels to give a more distinguished look to the chairs, as opposed to the exposed steel stanchions. The grasswood veneer for the end panels matches well with the custom millwork at the front of the stage and in the middle of the auditorium sections, giving a polished and clean look to this large auditorium space.
Elsewhere in the building, HSC provided telescopic bleachers with auto-rotating aisle rails, blue courtside seats and ADA flex-rows for handicap seating capacities. In total, this smaller gymnasium added over 450 additional seats to the new gymnasium space. Gared Performance Sports Systems (PSS) provided basketball backstops that FEC installed to complement the gymnasium seating.
This project at Liberty-Benton highlighted many of FEC’s capabilities from an installation standpoint. Facing a tight window and a clear end date in mind, the FEC team installed several scopes of work, including some very high-end millwork throughout the new building. This millwork, coupled with a large amount of casework, auditorium seating and bleacher/backstop packages were all delivered on time and properly. It’s a great instance of the capacity FEC can deliver on any of its projects.
The project gallery at the new K-8 building for Liberty Benton is visible below.
