May 25, 2017 By Harry Funk 3 min read

=The unveiling of a conceptual design for a new Peters Township High School drew some positive reviews during the school board’s May 22 meeting.

“I think it’s very Frank Lloyd Wright,” school board member Minna Allison said, “with all the levels and having natural light on every level.”

While the three-story, window-laden building envisioned by Hayes Design Group of Robinson Township has no stream flowing through, it does somewhat resemble Wright’s famed Fallingwater.

The school district opts to release the image of the concept later in what will be a lengthy process , which includes determining even if a new high school will be built at the site of the former Rolling Hills Country Club.

In the meantime, Hayes Design Group principal and founder Kevin Hayes, joined by project managers Mark Duane and Robert Rensi, presented a series of early stage renderings at the board’s May 22 buildings and grounds committee meeting.

“At first look, there’s a lot here, kind of like the plan you guys had put together for renovating the high school,” board member Ronald Dunleavy said about Hayes Design’s concept for a possible renovation of the current building, “something I would have never imagined. I think you did a wonderful job of putting this all together.”

The new building, which at this point has an estimated cost of between $90 million and $95 million, would do little to disrupt the property’s topography.

“One of the biggest challenges was to reduce the amount of grading,” Duane explained. “We didn’t want to make this site flat and just make it a Kmart. We wanted to actually keep the rolling hills. Grading could be expensive, too, when you’re pushing a lot of dirt around.”

Hayes described the resulting effect on the design for the school.

“We have to navigate 30 feet of vertical drop, and the hillside slopes down. So think of this as being three pies, stacked on top of one another diagonally,” he said: “The big pie on top, medium-sized pie in the middle and a small pie in the bottom, and they kind of go on an angle down the hillside.”

The primary entrance to the school would be on the upper level, with access from there to the main theater and gymnasium, and, if constructed, a natatorium.

“The pool is being shown as part of the program,” Hayes said. “The board still has to decide, is it in the bid documents or it is not. We can do this as a future addition. You could also do it as bid alternate,” with quotes received separately for that particular facet of the project.

A site plan concept calls for access to the school’s parking lots, one solely for buses, from three entrances. One would be the existing entrance from East McMurray Road serving Rolling Hills, and the other two along Center Church Road.

As per the overall concept, which Hayes Design developed in conjunction with fellow architectural firm Weber Murphy Fox, the new building would exceed the size of the current high school by about 40,000 feet and include 10 additional classrooms.

The school board, administration and other involved parties anticipate working on project specifications for at least another year.

“If we move forward,” Kevin Hayes said, “we’re looking to bid sometime in the summer of 2018.”