20/20 Vision Committee Meeting Notes
10/18/10
Welcome: Todd Wrobleski will show outside renderings of the building. Dr. Keenan
indicated he will show internal plans and site plans. It’s important to get feedback
from the 20/20 Vision Committee on all aspects of the project.
Agenda:
1. Preliminary draft floor/site plans of the middle school
a. We put most of academic portion of LBMS in one area. We can cordon
off that area in the evening if there are activities in the gymnasium or
other areas of the building.
b. A number of changes have been made throughout the process after
input from staff, 20/20 Vision Committee, neighborhood groups.
c. Ball fields were a big concern. The option of taking out some trees was
discussed to rebuilding fields. Instead, moved softball and practice
football fields. Another field will be moved to Holly Lane.
d. There were concerns about traffic. Added a turnaround for buses.
Without adding extra flow to Dover Center, Bassett Road access
became important. We will close off Bassett Road entrance at certain
points to limit the traffic flow based on concerns from neighbors.
2. Preliminary draft floor/site plan for WHS
a. Traffic is what we continue to work on, trying to be mindful of the
traffic impact on Hilliard Boulevard.
b. Advantage to most recent proposal separates buses entirely from
pedestrian and private vehicle traffic.
c. We rotated the building based on input from community and staff. Not
sure we have been able to meet all needs but working to address
input.
d. Todd Wrobleski from MKC Architects showed elevation drawings
e. Staff and community were looking for a traditional, classic, collegiate
look. Georgian architectural look with a rotunda, cupolas, steep roofs.
f. Difficult to deal with volume and size of the Performing Arts Center.
Competing against that tall element. Trying to re-engage the entrance
to the PAC through the vestibule. Take that block of space and
incorporate it into our new entry piece.
g. Looking for ways to gain natural light into interior spaces.
h. Student entrance to the south.
i. PAC only part of building remaining. It has a more contemporary,
modern façade. Next challenge to do something more contemporary
on the outside. Exterior concept is still the same, classroom areas are
still same.
j. Still trying to work in traditional elements, maybe introduce some
green on the exterior, large sweeping overhangs to shade window
areas, window shades on lower classrooms. Frank Lloyd Wright prairie
style.
3. Questions
a. Security issues with angles on an exterior.
i. We will need to have more cameras, but we did smooth over
some corners.
b. Have enough exits for games after hours at LBMS site?
i. We’ll have a traffic light, which we don’t have now. There also
will be a stop sign at Bassett Road.
c. How does drop-off work for parents?
i. There will be no buses coming up Bassett Road when school
starts. Some parents will be using Bassett Road. Don’t want to
overload Dover Center.
ii. Don’t forget Dover Elementary will be open for several more
years.
iii. We had TMS do traffic study and tell us the best way to have a
safe site and balance the traffic on Dover Center so it’s not a
mess.
iv. Traffic will change after buses drop off.
d. Start times going to change?
i. Citizens Advisory Committee is looking at our start times.
e. What about the trees on the LBMS site?
i. We’re not taking down the trees except for the Bassett Road
entrance area.
f. Looks like new building takes up entire existing WHS lot, and how do
you access the PAC?
i. New building will be built in existing lot. Access to PAC when
building opens will be through the building, through a rotunda.
ii. Struggling with whether the PAC should have a separate
entrance or have everyone go through the vestibule of the new
building? We may have to do parking behind the PAC. We don’t
have some of those details quite figured out but it needs to be
addressed.
g. What kind of buffer are you talking about with WHS? Pleasure of
building now is drive down Hilliard and don’t see the cars. Now looking
at a parking lot on Hilliard.
i. Probably will hold about 450 cars.
ii. There is some landscaping we can do, evergreens for screening.
There aren’t a lot of options of where the building can go on the
site. It’s been a struggle.
h. Can you move a baseball diamond over to Read Field? It will look like a
used car lot.
i. We have a landscape budget. We will do our best to address
that.
ii. Hard to add a field over at Read Field because we are adding
another building on that site. We’re using land on that site for a
building. We’re losing two fields because of the addition of the
building. We explored looking at tree areas for fields.
i. You’re using all this expensive land to park these cars.
i. We’re using the same lot for a building and a parking lot. We’re
just changing where the building is and where the parking lot is.
j. John Lance Ford is a great example of how they hide that.
i. We will look into all possibilities before we make any decisions
on how and what we do.
k. After hours entrances?
i. Academic wing will not be in use. There are a series of doors
that prevent patrons from gaining access to the rest of the
building after hours. Commons, athletics, PAC are most used
after hours.
l. Capacity of parking lot right now?
i. A little over 400 student spots, and another 150+ faculty spots.
m. When you have athletic events, this parking lot cannot hold them all.
Where are you going to hold everyone?
i. Only athletic event to fill our parking capacity is Westlake Relays
and Music a la Mode.
n. There is no parking for visitors when they come here. They are being
ticketed for parking on our streets.
i. People choose to park where they park.
ii. This year at the peak of Homecoming I still had spots available.
iii. Parking is going to be a problem on our site. Neighbors wanted
us to make a bigger lot at WHS because they don’t want kids
parking. But they will continue to try to park where they can.
o. Homes in the area don’t have Georgian fronts, so that style would stick
out like a sore thumb.
i. There are certain rules to follow, and it’s one of the challenges
to make it look like you want.
p. Is there a difference in costs of the different styles?
q.
r.
s.
t.
u.
v.
w.
i. Georgian is probably the priciest, followed by contemporary, and
followed by prairie style. A lot is cost in volume. Steeper roofs,
higher pitches are where money comes into play.
What kinds of sacrifices would we have to make to build the Georgian
style?
i. In true Georgian architecture, might see some stone. Maybe
that goes concrete block. Most schools we use oversized utility
brick to speed up construction and less labor.
ii. We don’t want to sacrifice floor plan for exterior extras.
iii. Heard most through past process was something that matches
city hall the best we could. Tough time because we have to
consider the more modern PAC.
iv. Exterior will be more community driven while internal space will
be mostly staff driven.
Did you say you are going to get community input on the exterior?
i. We have Board meetings, neighborhood meetings and 20/20
meetings. We want your feedback to take back to the Board of
Education.
1. Concerned about people who will never enter this building
but will drive by and pay for it. We’ve heard a lot when
they built city hall. If those same people feel they didn’t
get the word and doing it again, that’s why I like
Georgian architecture, but the second version more
scaled down and more powerful.
ii. We have to show both ends of the continuum.
What’s the over the top number, in terms of cost?
i. We have a budget for the building. Nothing has been costed out.
We’re trying to put concepts out to value engineer it. We’re
working for a concept of style. Neo-classical, classical, modern,
prairie. They all will have to fall within a similar budget.
What are you going to see on Hilliard Boulevard with WHS?
i. You’ll see primarily the east elevation.
We are not a Georgian community, but love the drawing. We are also
not a modern community. Maybe incorporate Georgian but tone it
down.
Don’t make it look like an assisted living facility.
Make something that looks grand from the road but not too over the
top.
Closing: We’d like to take two of these and do more to the drawings. As soon as he
can turn it around we’ll call another meeting.
Next anticipated time to meet is Nov. 4, 6:30pm, in the WHS cafeteria. We will
email out invitations to those who have provide email and ask the local media to
post announcements to try to give a week’s notice.