Lakewood Construction

"The Bear Lake construction project was an amazing success. Our success can be attributed to the high professional standards that Lakewood, Inc. maintains. Their on-site and off-site construction management was outstanding. I have worked with various architects and construction management firms during the course of my career. I give Lakewood, Inc. my highest recommendation."

Greg Webster, Superintendent

This addition to the existing West High School building features a pool / aquatic center with entrance lobby and also includes a practice gymnasium.

The construction of the building varies. The pool area consists of rigid steel construction with barrel-vaulted trusses supporting continuous 145-foot curved standing-seam roof panels. The men’s and women’s locker rooms, a workout room, and pool support / mechanical rooms are located beneath the cast-in-place concrete bleachers. The practice gymnasium and lobby areas are conventional masonry-bearing construction.

The pool itself is slightly longer than MHSAA regulation at 119 feet by 75 feet (10 primary lanes, and 16 secondary lanes) and has a movable floating bulkhead that allows the 119-foot dimension to be partitioned to a regulation 33 1/3 meters x 25 yards and allow event equipment and associated markings to be easily reconfigured for different events or even to allow multiple events simultaneously. There are two (2) diving platforms on the west end. Scorekeeping and video systems are all state-of-the-art technology with a full motion high-definition video board.

In keeping with Zeeland’s sustainability design paradigm, there are energy recovery systems and the water temperature is regulated by tying in to the existing geothermal well system. There are also lucrative amounts of natural lighting protected by sun shades to match the existing structure.

This facility showcases “Sustainable Design” concepts and technologies which have now become staples of Zeeland Public Schools’ building construction and maintenance programs. It includes a modern media center and food-service area as well as advanced athletic facilities and laboratory classrooms.

The building is heated and cooled by heat pumps linked to a network of closed-loop geothermal wells located under an adjacent practice field. In addition to adding extra insulation to the roof and walls to minimize heat loss, the roof is covered with white ThermoPlastic Olefin (TPO) membrane to substantially reduce heat gain during the cooling season.

A small wind turbine and Photovoltaic Array generate a portion of the building’s power. In addition to being connected to the electrical grid, these features have been connected with special monitoring equipment used as teaching tools by the school’s Technology Department.

Strategically sized and placed windows and sunshades allow significant amounts of natural light to enter the building reducing the need to utilize artificial lighting while still significantly reducing solar gain during the warmer parts of the year.

It has been documented that this High School (Zeeland West), which is similar in size to its sister school (Zeeland East) located only 1100-feet to the east, is saving the taxpayers nearly 50% in energy costs compared to the traditional systems in use at the Zeeland East building.