Over the last several years the administration at Southwest Allen County Schools (SACS) began to dream about making major changes at Homestead High School (HHS). Primarily a single story building, students struggled to travel from one side to another during passing periods and there were few spaces able to facilitate informal student interactions or collaborative group work.
CSO was brought on board with local architect MKM and educational consultant Brain Spaces to begin programming and planning for the future Homestead. Extensive meetings with students, staff, parents, and community members quickly revealed immense support for changes at the high school and a desire for the building to better represent and support the students who walked its hallways. The design team collaborated to maximize the amount of new space to be constructed while leveraging portions of the existing facility to reach the desired program requirements.
The resultant design will include a new two story academic wing, large student commons, 3,000 seat completion gym, and 990 seat performing arts center. Nearly 400,000 sf will be added on to the existing high school before razing roughly 350,000 sf of existing structure. The remaining 300,000 sf will be extensively renovated ensure the ‘new’ building has the same look, feel, and function throughout.
Completing a project of this scale while keeping the existing building operational during construction will be a complex task requiring continued coordination between SACS, HHS, the design team, and the construction manager. The phased addition, renovation, and demolition is set to occur from July 2020 through December 2024. Once complete Homestead High School will finally have space to educate students for generations to come.