Ben Franklin School Rehabilitation

The Ben Franklin Schoolhouse was originally constructed in the early 1900s to serve the small town of Inspiration, Arizona, located just outside of Miami, Arizona. The school closed around 1980 and was later converted into office space by Phelps Dodge Corporation. By the 1990s, the building had been abandoned and has since deteriorated.

The new scope of work involved rehabilitating the Benjamin Franklin School into a consolidated training facility, bringing all training operations onsite within the newly restored historic schoolhouse. The three-story facility encompasses approximately 17,500 square feet. M3’s scope included rehabilitation of the existing building and associated site improvements. M3 provided architectural, civil, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical engineering services for the project.

The project included historic preservation efforts to maintain the building’s character-defining features and spaces; structural stabilization and repair of the building envelope to comply with current codes and historic preservation standards; reconstruction of missing interior features and finishes to restore essential historic elements; upgrades to mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural systems; and adaptation of the building to accommodate new program functions. The adaptive reuse project converted the building into a facility for onsite training, offices, classrooms, restrooms, and conference rooms.

The rehabilitation also included securing certification for the building’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places.