Alexandrians learned more about plans for a new T.C. Williams High School this week. Although the school system had originally planned to submit the formal application to the city for rezoning and a special-use permit last spring, the application will finally be submitted next week.
“This will begin the formal process that will ultimately lead to City Council approval and the construction of a new school,” said Barbara Ross, the deputy director of the city’s planning department, at a community meeting at the high school Monday night. “Even after Council gives its approval, there are still other things that need to be done before groundbreaking.”
That groundbreaking was originally scheduled for spring 2004. “If all goes well and the application is submitted next week, we hope that the Planning Commission and City Council will hold hearings on and vote on the project in December,” Ross said.
This leads most special-use permit process observers to conclude that groundbreaking will be, at the earliest, some time next summer.
Not all has gone well to this point. Just in the past week, the school system has ordered soil samples to be taken from the site. This comes two years after architects began work on the project and after unforeseen site conditions — marine clay — caused delays and cost overruns at George Washington Middle School.
“There is bad soil on this site,” said Billy Riggs, the T.C. project coordinator for Mosley Architects. “We will not have to excavate but will build a different type of foundation to deal with these conditions.”
The 450,000-square-foot high school is being built on a landfill and a creek bed. Riggs suggested that the foundation might be built on caissons. Other sources close to the project say that there are three options being considered. The bad soil could be removed and replaced with good soil, as was done at G.W.; pilings could be dug further down; or caissons could be used. The School Board has not voted on how to resolve this issue, nor have cost estimates been provided.
“All you have to do to know that there is bad soil is to come and look at one of our yards,” said one neighbor, who lives on Bishop Lane. “When I was building my garage, the city made me put enough rebar in it to support a skyscraper. And don’t we have another floating building that is sinking?”
The city’s public safety center on Mill Road is sinking, and the cost of repairing it will be high. The cost of the foundation fix at T.C. will be added to the now $80 million cost estimate. City Council has approved a budget of $75 million for the project.
ARCHITECTS HAVE done what they can to mask the mass of the building. “We have used traditional red brick part of the way up and then gone to lighter-colored brick,” Rigs said. They have also used landscaping to screen the large parking structure from nearby neighbors.
Some of the citizens who were present praised the architects for their use of sustainable construction materials and methods.
“We are very pleased,” said David Peabody, a member of a group called Alexandrians for a Green T.C. “You have done everything that we asked you to do on a very difficult site.”
There will be cisterns under the parking structure to collect rainwater that can be used for flushing toilets and watering fields. A rooftop garden over the student commons area will allow for daylight to enter second- and third-story classrooms. Water, instead of other types of refrigerants, will be used to cool the building. Ceramic tiles will be used in the hallways on walls, instead of paint, and environmentally appropriate wood will be used on gymnasium floors and where there is wood in the building.
“We will have a computer monitor in the student commons so that students can see just how the building is functioning so that the students can learn about sustainable techniques,” Rigs said.
What is the cost of incorporating these “green” techniques? “Buildings such as this are about 40-percent more efficient than those that do not use sustainable materials,” said Rebecca L. Perry, the superintendent of schools. “However, we have not looked at the cost or the cost savings over time. We will get those numbers.”
THE BUILDING WILL be constructed in phases. The career wing will be torn down first so that the new building can be built right next to the current school.
“Students will be housed in trailers inside the track for some time,” Rigs said. “We have not figured out exactly how to mitigate the dust and debris from the construction, but we are aware that this is a concern.”
Construction is estimated to take two to three years. While there is not a revised timeline, most estimate that the new building will open sometime in the fall of 2007.
And what is going to be taught in the new building? “A group of faculty, led by Dr. Margee Walsh and [Principal] John Porter, have been working on the education specifications for some time,” Perry said. “We know that we are going to have small schools-within-a-school environments. Instead of having one 2,500-student school, we are going to have five smaller academic houses. We do not know exactly what these will look like yet. As teachers look at various options, we are trying to remain flexible.”
Anyone wishing to look at the three-dimensional model of the proposed new school can see it at the office of planning and zoning in City Hall. Over the next few months, there will also be further opportunities for members of the public to comment on the project. The Planning Commission will schedule a public hearing on the project before a vote, as will City Council.