WHAT WILL THE NEW CARNEGIE LOOK LIKE?
Report on Design Charrette
February 6, 2010, CVHS 9 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Saturday February 6, 2010 was an historic one for Carnegie Vanguard High School. Over fifty current and alumni parents, teachers, administrators, architects and HISD staff arrived on a cold and beautiful Saturday morning at Carnegie at 9:00 AM for our Design Charrette. We got right to work. The architects - RdlR presented the facts of the project:
(i) we have about 6 acres of raw land together with the existing Settegast Building on the site to work with;
(ii) we have about $13.5MM for actual construction costs;
(iii) the new building at today’ cost per square foot prices can be about 80,000 sq. ft.
(iv) Substantial Completion is scheduled for April 2012 and move in August 2012.
We went on to a 1.5 hour open microphone session which allowed anyone who had a comment or question or emotion to voice their thoughts. We then broke out into 5 groups of approximately 10 each. Each group was comprised of parents, teachers, architects, and students. Questions were answered such as "What traditions exist at Carnegie that you want to see move to the new building?" etc. After about 1.5 hours of brainstorming we broke for a quick and wonderful pot luck lunch on what turned out to be a perfect day to take advantage of our courtyard. We reconvened and each group presented their key points developed during their sessions. Key on that list were COURTYARD; one lunch; theater/fine arts space. There was also much discussion around retaining the existing building on the site - The Settegast Estate Building - and that possibly becoming our Arts Annex to contain a theater, Art Studio/Classroom; Art Gallery; Dark Room; Dance/Music Rooms etc.. Need for physical activity areas; as much green space as possible; ability to interact with our new community and be good neighbors; great science labs; a green building as much as possible; take advantage of the fantastic views of downtown; making the least amount of impact on the site as possible with the parking that is required.
It was a wonderful enriching day for all who participated. All voices were heard. The architect will hopefully submit their report on what they heard and saw to the Building Committee by Friday. The Building Committee will then review that over the weekend and will meet next Wednesday to get down to the hard work of making decisions that will allow the architects to actually draw the building. Please go to the Carnegie Vanguard High School Building Facebook Page to keep up with where we are and where we are going. Questions can also always be directed to Mr. Moss or through any parent member of the Building Committee who are:
DanguoleAtman danguoles@aol.com
William Altman wm.altman@sbcglobal.net
Carmen Velez cvelez@netzero.net
Kathy Butler kathy@butlerharris.com
Jim Weston jweston33@gmail.com
Sabrina Strawn smstrawn@gmail.com
Margaret Gay peggysuegay@gmail.com
Randy Gay randy_gay@swbell.net
Karin Knapp karinknapp@earthlink.net
Sherri McElwee smac_115@yahoo.com
Thank you to all who participated!!!
