District ties educational ideas to school design in several proposed projects

By BECKY WALDROP

Gazette-Times reporter

Design work for two new schools and renovations for others in the first phase of the Corvallis School District's facility improvement plan are nearing completion.

Although construction and site preparation work is still a few months away, details such as the handicap accessible auditorium and the brick and pre-cast concrete entry for the new Corvallis High School can be seen in the conceptual drawings and models prepared by architects.

Meanwhile district facilities staff members have set up office in the Highland View Middle School library, which will serve as construction management center for the school building and improvement projects included in the $86.4 million capital improvement measure approved by voters last November.

Steve Olson, an architect from Dull Olson and Weeks, the group hired to design the replacement Corvallis High School, said the best part of this project has been the community's involvement in the design process. Features for the new building can be traced to input that came from the people who will use the school, including teachers, students, coaches, Linn-Benton Community College representatives and people involved in performing arts.

"It really is the community's building," Olson said.

Site preparation work at Highland will begin this spring, and at Corvallis High School once students are out for summer break. A replacement middle school at the Highland site will be ready for students in September 2004.

At Corvallis High, the building plans will allow students to remain in the old building until the replacement school is ready in September 2005. The new school will be built where the track and soccer fields are now located, with the entrance facing Buchanan Avenue and parking to the west and rear of the property. When students move to the new school, the old building will be demolished to make room for athletic facilities, including a new track and football stadium and additional parking.

The district intends to stick with its voter-approved plans for a new Corvallis High, in spite of an effort to have a portion of the old building preserved. There are no legal barriers that could prevent the district from building new and demolishing the old building even if a preservation group is successful in listing the school on the National Register of Historic Places, said District Facilities Director Fred Wright.

Jeanne Holmes, a member of the district's administrative staff, said designing a new building has allowed architects to take teaching and learning concepts and make them part of the new school. Issues such as safety, security and supervision have been incorporated into plans, too.

The front office for the high school will have a clear line of view to the main entrance. And instead of the 51 ways students and visitors now have to get in and out of the school, the new design calls for much fewer entryways.

The pedestrian flow should actually be much smoother in the new building, said Holmes, because the spaces are designed for the purposes they'll serve.

It will also be possible for a single adult to supervise large areas with the open design of the new school.

Members of the design committee wanted the school to be centered around a library, where classes would have easy access to flexible learning spaces. Architects have also been able to avoid some of the problems with the old building. Instead of long, closed-door hallways with blind corners, the new school will have clusters of classrooms. And the cafeteria will be much closer to the classrooms.

The next steps for the high school is to look at maintenance and heating systems. The district is trying to receive the second-highest rating for sustainable design, by using recycled materials and making the school 30 percent more efficient than the state's energy efficiency standards. That will result in long-term operational cost savings for the district and honors for the community's value for sustainable design.