Community input crucial to school renovation
The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., was built during World War II to house the Manhattan Project, and today is home to the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 Weapons Facility.
Academic excellence is crucial for the community, but the district’s 1950s-era high school was outdated and contradicted the standard of excellence that residents demand, presenters said during a conference workshop Sunday. A consultant’s 2003 study, which said a portion of the school was potentially unsafe, forced the district “to act immediately.”
The result was the largest renovation of its kind in Tennessee history, one that transformed the 1,500-student school into the district’s “crown jewel.”
Superintendent Thomas Baily said Oak Ridge officials forged strong community partnerships to gain support for a $60 million bond referendum that passed by a 3-to-1 ratio in 2004; it was the only such measure to pass in the state that year. Residents and businesses also contributed $8 million to bridge the funding gap for the project and the district also received $9 million in Qualified Zone Academy Bonds.
The design team conducted three collaborative sessions, called “charrettes,” that allowed architects to gather design suggestions from administrators, board members, teachers, citizens, business leaders, and students.
“These charettes allowed us to validate the design concept we presented to ultimately win the project,” said Jim French, senior principal and designer with DLR Group, the architectural firm selected by the board following a national design competition.
Among the changes: The school’s main entrance previously was positioned on the north side, limiting highway visibility, so DLR’s architects proposed re-orienting it to the south side to face the heavily traveled Oak Ridge Turnpike. The move further enhanced the school’s prominence in the community.
“This process of open communication and the sharing of different ideas during the design gave everyone involved a sense of ownership,” said school board Chair John Smith.
The project included a 166,400-square-foot addition that nearly doubled the size of the high school on the existing site, as well as renovations to the existing structure. The state-of-the-art learning environment now supports interdisciplinary learning, career academies, strong community connections, and sustainability.
The new building features a 50-foot glass atrium; a new main entrance plaza that invites visitors into the facility; science laboratories designed with input from professionals at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; review spaces to facilitate project-based group learning; and resource areas to promote student and teacher interaction.