Rose Magrann, head of Friends Academy of Westampton, New Jersey describes the academy’s 3-year-old Commons Building as “a beautiful post-frame constructed building that complements the other buildings on our campus.”
She considers it the “final piece to our campus puzzle,” providing a multi-purpose facility that can serve as a gymnasium, cafeteria, or auditorium. The building was named the second-place winner in the Industrial category of the 2009 Building of the Year awards sponsored by the National Frame Building Association.
Magrann explained that, since its founding in 1983, the Friends Academy had held classes (kindergarten through fifth grade) in a small Methodist church. Nearly 20 years later, the academy purchased land to expand the campus, which today comprises four buildings. The Commons Building was completed in April 2009 in only 60 days—despite the late winter weather.
Timothy Little, of Little Construction Co., Inc., in Mount Holly, New Jersey, noted that a post-frame building has several distinct features that allow it to blend in with existing campus buildings.
“This structure is a 72' x 120' x 20' post-frame building with a 132' long single-slope wrap-around porch,” he said. “After interior fit-out, the building has a state-of-the-art sports and all-purpose-room floor, cafeteria area, large bathrooms, scoreboards, and basketball backboard systems that hang from the roof truss system.”
Concerning the building’s design, Little added that “a lot of emphasis was placed on the design and detail to achieve the owner’s desired finished product. The wrap-around porch lends a very pleasant and inviting character to the building, and our custom-built cupolas serve as a final touch to make the building even more attractive.”