Abo Elementary School - Construction

Construction

Building the Abo Elementary School required that it be constructed with concrete reinforcing walls and a concrete outer shell to protect the inner parts of the school. In order to fulfill all requirements, Abo contained multiple drinking wells, a cafeteria, food storage, bedding and supplies for up to 2,160 people, air filtration systems, an emergency power generation system, decontamination systems, and a morgue.

Architect Frank Standhardt, in designing the school said, "I consider my profession derelict on civil defense. We've had ten years of grace and done nothing about it." Standhardt had built multiple aboveground windowless schools before Abo, believing them to positively influence pupils' ability to concentrate. He also cited reduced maintenance costs since there were no windows. Construction cost estimates were inconsistent: a Time magazine article (September 5, 1960) quotes Standhardt as estimating the costs at ten percent above the cost of an average above-ground school, while Loretta Hall in Underground Buildings: More than Meets the Eye suggests a cost at thirty percent. Regardless, the U.S. Office of Civil Defense contributed the excess cost, assuming that it would benefit from any empirical testing performed on the students in the underground environment.

Standhardt designed the school in such a way as to make every element serve multiple purposes. In order to reduce cost of concrete, for example, the concrete shell roof of the school would double as a basketball court, and the drinking wells were designed to pump water into the air conditioning systems during peacetime. Two-way radio systems, Geiger counters, and fire fighting equipment were also built into the design.