The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Environmental Program strives to support the goals of Facility Operations and the Capital Improvement Program in providing CPS students and staff with buildings that are safe from environmental hazards. This philosophy requires the adherence to applicable rules, regulations and standards relating to environmental conditions typically encountered during construction and renovation of educational facilities, including, but not limited to, asbestos-containing materials (ACM), lead-based paint (LBP), mold, universal/chemical waste, underground storage tanks (USTs), and unsuitable soils.
These design guidelines outline the rationale to be followed by CPS Design Manager (DM), the architect of record (AOR) and the Managing Environmental Consultant (MEC) to assure consistency in the execution and coordination of environmental issues for CPS projects, including new construction, renovation and demolition.
Environmental considerations may occur at several milestones during the execution of projects for CPS, thus evaluation of environmental concerns must be coordinated between CPS, the DM, the AOR and the MEC as early as possible and consistently throughout the design process. A thorough review of the potential environmental impacts during the early stages of design provide valuable opportunities to adjust scoping, scheduling and planning to maintain future scope, schedule and budget.
All new construction, renovation and/or demolition projects must include an assessment by the MEC to determine existing environmental conditions. The AOR’s assistance at this juncture is essential in providing the MEC information to allow the MEC to properly define the areas to be reviewed, assessed and tested. Then, based on a careful review of the site and existing environmental conditions and their potential impact on the proposed project, the environmental costs and schedule can be estimated by the MEC to allow them to be factored into the overall project costs and schedule of the project.