Brookfield-LaGrange Park District 95 school board members agreed last week to have the district’s architect begin preparing working drawings and final cost estimates for a new main entrance to S.E. Gross Middle School to be built off the main parking lot that fronts Broadway Avenue.
The entrance way will be four red brick piers forming a canopy over the current entry door and a new door yet to be constructed that will open into the new district and school administrative office area on the first floor.
School board members have been mulling options for the new entry way for several weeks now. Last month FGM Architects presented the board with three options, ranging from a simple suspended 16-foot metal canopy to a 43-foot canopy supported by concrete and columns.
After a lukewarm response by board members, who wanted to see the new entrance way match the existing architecture more closely, FGM came up with a fourth solution, which looks to have the board’s favor.
The 41-foot canopy would be supported by steel columns wrapped in red brick. A high-gauge acrylic sign above the canopy, running its full width, would bear the name of the school and clearly mark the entry way as the main entrance to the school.
While the parking lot entry currently serves as the main entryway for school events and for visitors, it is not marked as such. The new design formalizes that use.
The only drawback for the preferred option is its cost, estimated by the district’s general contractor at roughly $100,000. The least expensive option, the simple suspended canopy, was estimated at $30,000.
However, Doug Lim from the Gilbane Building Co., the general contractor, said that the cost would not put the district’s construction contingency fund at risk.
“It will leave us about $330,000 [in the contingency fund],” Lim said. “Standing here right now, I think we can make that happen.”
Work at S.E. Gross School is expected to begin after the end of the school year and finish prior to the start of the 2008-09 year. In addition to the new entrance and office suite, the school will receive a new computer lab, three new science labs, an expanded lunch room and remodeled library in addition to life safety improvements.
Meanwhile, construction of the new addition to Brook Park School in LaGrange Park is nearly complete.
According to Carl Krause, site superintendent for Gilbane, construction of the building and landscaping should wrap up within the next 30 days.
District 95 Superintendent Thomas Hurlburt added that the construction of angled parking along 29th Street between Raymond and Harrison avenues is expected to begin at the beginning of May. Five of the eight trees in the south parkway along 29th Street will be removed to allow for the 18-space lot, which will serve as faculty parking.