Guest Opinion: Architect Interviews Start Process, Shed Light on School Buildings and Bond

By Janet Brownell,
Orcas Island School District Board President

This week the Orcas Island School Board will interview nine architectural firms who are all candidates to design a possible new middle school, school library, cafeteria, CTE building, as well as oversee improvements to the elementary and high schools. The hope is to have an architect hired as soon as possible to come up with schematic plans to present to the community as part of a school bond election in February 2010. The school board is particularly excited about the incredible expertise and creativity all of these firms offer.

The times of the interviews are as follows:

Wednesday, September 23

12:00pm   BLRB Architects

1:00pm     TCF Architecture

2:30pm    DYKEMAN

3:30pm    MENG/STRAZZARA Studio

4:30pm    HUTTLEBALL/OREMUS Architecture

Thursday, September 24:

11:00 am    MAHLUM

12:00 am    MILLER /HULL

1:30pm      MITHUN

2:30pm      SIERRA /MARTIN

First, and foremost, this is a public school project. As school board member Charlie Glasser keenly observed it is literally “building as pedagogy.” These will be buildings in which our children will learn; and buildings from which our children can learn about architecture, engineering, energy conservation and sustainability.

Equally important is the connection these new buildings will have to the community.  We envision the use of the facilities to extend beyond the school district to become a community learning center. We realize there is a fine balance between design and cost.  We hope the design of the buildings will not only be functional, but inspirational. The natural beauty of Orcas Island surrounds us. We would hope any building design would recognize that beauty and emphasize, not obscure, it.

While we hope to create buildings in which our community will have complete pride and ownership, we also recognize the economic times in which we live. We do not want to over-design the project so as to have our neighbors believe we have squandered their hard-earned money in an over-indulgent project of form over substance. As with most of your clients, we want the most beautiful, yet functional, buildings possible.

Lastly, the school board sees this as an opportunity to provide local stimulus to our island. Wherever possible, we will encourage the architects to design this project with the hope of hiring as local contractors as will serve the needs of construction.

The partnership between the school district, the public, and the design team will be an essential one for passage of school bond in February. These interviews will be open meetings and we hope you will attend.