Renovations under way at Parkview High School

Ground was broken for the promised renovation and addition project. The school, built in the mid-1950s and dedicated in 1956, will gain space and become more user-friendly.

“It’s going to be a great project and Parkview is a great school. It’s the second-oldest high school that we have and it has a rich history,” said Bob Keyes, public information officer for Springfield Public Schools.

History

In the 1950s, Parkview High School’s design was state-of-the-art, taking advantage of natural light, heating and cooling. Described in the 1956 dedication pamphlet as an aesthetically pleasing, functionally designed edifice, the original structure, which didn’t include the second classroom wing, cost $1.5 million.

Original square footage was 150,000, Keyes said.

“When Parkview was designed, it was designed to take advantage of some of the current thinking of the time; that you could have some solar heating of the building and that if you planted the appropriate shrubs and handled it well, you could have a building that could be more efficient environmentally. The trees grew higher than we’d thought they might (and) the limbs weren’t in the right location,” said Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Jack Ernst. “I think some of the assumptions about solar gain and loss were probably not as good as what we’d hoped. So what we found was we had a building that was very hot when we wanted it to be cool and very cold when we wanted it to be hot.”

Although the current Parkview renovation project was part of a $30 million no-tax-increase bond issue approved by voters in April 2003, the bidding process took longer than expected.

In April 2004, the lowest bid of $11,278,000 was rejected.

The renovation was designed to basically be a $10 million project, Keyes said.

“The original bidders came in over what we had as an allocated budget. We sent the project back to the drawing board,” Ernst said.

Ernst’s example of one item that had to be rethought was a proposed requirement for a large roof superstructure between the new wing and old, which he described as very expensive.

“We cut some square footage, but we still are building everything, and more, that we promised to the voters,” Ernst said.

The project is adding 54,200 square feet. Because 42,845 square feet is being torn down, the school will see a net gain of 11,355 square feet.

“Basically, we’re rebuilding all the classrooms we had before, and all those will be larger by a minimum of 100 square feet per classroom. In the original design, we tried to go for more than what we originally promised,” Ernst said.

After the redesign, bids were taken again. In August, the Springfield School Board awarded Building Construction Enterprises Inc. the contract with a base bid of $8,796,000; an additional $1,055,000 is to go for bid alternates such as library upgrades, Keyes said.

Past projects of Building Construction Enterprises include Cooper Park Tennis Complex and the Springfield State Office Building.

The project involves building a new wing, demolishing the old north wing, adding air conditioning, new science labs, speech and debate classrooms, remodeling the library and administration area and road and parking lot improvements.

Completion is set for summer 2006. Specifically, the new addition is slated for completion by November 2005 and the air-conditioning is to be installed by the end of summer 2005.

“I always begin a project expecting that it will be a good project and we think this one will be as well,” said Jeff Wasinger, project manager, Building Construction Enterprises Inc., of Kansas City.

Wasinger said most of the about 40 subcontractors BCE is working with are from Springfield.

These include Whitney Mechanical Contractors, Sechler Electric, Jerry Bennett Masonry, Advanced Concrete Technology, Doing Steel, Magnum Steel, Fry Construction Services, Ramsey Excavating Co., Bi-State Roofing Systems and Springfield Glass.

LeNir Ltd. is the project manager and Lohmeyer-Russell Architects Inc. is the architect.

Past projects of Lohmeyer-Russell include Glendale Christian Church on Blackman Road and some of John Q. Hammons’ hotels.

Construction Challenges

Jim Lohmeyer, principle of Lohmeyer-Russell Architects, said one challenge was designing the building on campus so that it could function as an educational environment during construction.

“There’s a large courtyard between two wings. That’s where we decided to put the new addition. It was a circulation path for the students between the north and south wings,” Lohmeyer said.

Wasinger added, “There’s always a challenge working around an existing facility. In particular, we’re building inside a courtyard and access is going to be challenging for us, but we’ve got a good group of subcontractors and we’re going to be able to meet the challenge.”

Safety is a priority, said Lohmeyer and Wasinger.

“If students need to be moved out of the building during any critical phase of construction, that will be done. We’ve done a lot of planning and meeting on how to do something critical in the construction process,” Lohmeyer said.

The school district is excited about the Parkview project, Ernst said, because the work is badly needed.

“It’s well known that although it’s a beautiful building there are some real advantages we’ll gain in the opportunity to provide a much more effective learning environment for students well into the future,” he said.