New design revealed for expanded Princeton High

Plans for other Princeton Schools are also revised.

By: Jeff Milgram
   A peaceful courtyard with landscaping based on ideas from students.
   A glass-enclosed indoor jogging track.
   An indoor swimming pool with access to the street so the community can use it without bothering students.
   These were among the latest design ideas the Princeton Regional Board of Education reviewed Tuesday night for its $81 million school expansion and renovation project.
   The board’s architect, The Hillier Group of West Windsor, presented schematic drawings for all six of the district’s schools and a dramatically detailed model of their ideas for Princeton High School.
   The model shows a contemporary school complex juxtaposed against PHS’ collegiate gothic tower.
   The school board, which hadn’t seen the schematic drawings before, put off a vote to give Hillier the authority to go ahead with the design development phase of the project. The board plans to vote at a special meeting beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the John Witherspoon cafeteria.
   The drawings unveiled Tuesday night were not all that different from what Hillier had proposed before the bond referendum on May 15.
   The most dramatic refinements to the original schematics came at PHS. Hillier officials said the design is still a work in progress.
   The original design called for two courtyards, which have now been consolidated into one large courtyard near the oldest part of the school with some kind of walkway, either at ground level or above ground level.
   According to David Hingston of Hillier, students could be given the chance to design seating and plantings.
   On the main level, the courtyard would be near three science laboratories and could be used for science projects. A "main street" walkway would be located on the north side of the science labs and courtyard, he said.
   Another innovative design element would be a glass-enclosed indoor jogging track that would be built on an intermediate level between the first and second floors of the gymnasium, but extend beyond the gym.
   The architects were able to move the performing arts center inward, creating room for an outdoor entry space away from parking, Mr. Hingston said.
   The site plan for PHS was altered slightly, with the school losing more than 55 parking spaces. The original plans called for 427 parking spaces. There are now 370 spaces, but Mr. Hingston said further tweaking of the plans could boost that to 405 spaces.
   At the John Witherspoon Middle School, the most important change involves moving the planned indoor swimming pool slightly. The pool, gym and physical education complex will be moved to a site across Guyot Avenue from the school’s parking lot, farther away from homes. The new site will clear up service access to the kitchen and maintain the playground area, Mr. Hingston said.
   The architects moved a classroom addition at Community Park to a location behind the library and the media center and will keep the administration area at its present site. The move of the addition will save some parking, Mr. Hingston said.
   At Johnson Park School, a new entrance will be built between the administration area and the nurses suite and a sloping glass corridor will connect an addition to the present building.
   At Littlebrook School, the architects reconfigured a pod that connected the academic wings, and a new addition will house four kindergarten classrooms, a resource room and a small instruction room, Mr. Hingston said.
   At Riverside School, music rooms will be relocated to a more isolated location because of sound concerns, and art rooms will be moved so they don’t receive direct sunlight.
   The kindergarten addition at Littlebrook School led to a discussion about air conditioning Tuesday night.
   While some administrative offices are air conditioned, few, if any classrooms in the district are, and board members Howard Wainer and Joshua Leinsdorf questioned Mr. Hingston about that.
   Mr. Hingston said it was often difficult from an engineering viewpoint to air-condition existing structures. It also would be expensive, he said. Current plans do not call for air-conditioning additions to the elementary schools.
   Board members, meeting in the John Witherspoon cafeteria on a warm and humid night, asked Mr. Hingston to study the costs of air-conditioning the additions and report back with estimates.
   Air conditioning, Mr. Wainer said, is only unimportant to the seller of a home that doesn’t have air-conditioning.
   In the meantime, district works crews have been busy this summer on maintenance projects, trying not to make upgrades that will have to be removed during the school construction, said Gary Weisman, the facilities director.
   The crews concentrated on PHS, updating bathrooms, replacing doors, faucets and toilet seats, Mr. Weisman said. A boiler was repaired at John Witherspoon, windows were replaced at Community Park and a television studio was relocated at Riverside School, he said.