Thank you to everyone who joined us at Andover High School for the community tours last Saturday.

Please join the AHS Building Committee at our next public meeting, scheduled for Thursday, January 26, 2023, at 6:30 PM in the School Committee room (2nd floor of 30 Whittier Court, above the Robb Senior Center).

The project team expects to have input from the landscape architect as it relates to field layouts and site configurations, which will help inform the Building Committee with their decision to refine the options to two site approaches next month.

This week’s agenda also includes an update on the preliminary Feasibility and Schematic Design timeline, as well as updates on the three site approaches selected for further development: Campus #2, Stand Alone, and Courtyard (site layouts and preliminary floor plans can be found in the posts below). The full agenda can be found here on the town website.

To have future meeting agendas automatically emailed to you or to receive text messages when an agenda is posted, please sign up through Andover’s Notify Me tool. We look forward to seeing you there, but if you cannot attend in person, meetings are recorded by AndoverTV and available in their meeting archive.

During the Andover High School Building Committee Meeting on 1/12/2023, PMA Consultants (Owners Project Manager) presented an update of the draft Feasibility and Schematic Design timeline, and an overview of the cost analysis/cost estimating process during both design phases.

HMFH Architects (Project Designer) also provided a Feasibility Study design update, include the design progression of the 3 site approaches that were selected for further development during the last Building Committee meeting on 12/20/2022.

These 3 approaches include the:

• Courtyard Approach (Addition/Renovation)
• Campus #2 Approach* (New Construction)
• Standalone Approach* (New Construction)

* Both the Campus #2 and Standalone Approach will include options to renovate the existing Collins Center or construct a new auditorium.

Concept images of the design approaches are below, and each is explained in more detail within the full 1/12/2023 SBC presentation (beginning on slide 21).

Discussion also took place around three areas that continue to inform design options (click links for further detail):

• Why should the town consider a new auditorium in a future project?
• Why should the town consider including a parking garage in a future project?
• Why should the town consider demolishing the existing science wing (built in 1995) in a future project?

Additionally, the Committee provided a reminder that there is another community tour of the existing Andover High School on Saturday, January 21, 2023, from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM. Tours will run continuously during this time, so please stop in at your convenience. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Design approaches under continued development and discussed at the 1/12/23 SBC meeting:

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Andover High tonight for school tours and our Community Forum.

The next opportunity to engage with the full AHS Building Committee is at tomorrow morning’s regularly scheduled public business meeting: Thursday, January 12, 2023 beginning at 7:50 AM in the School Committee room (2nd floor of 30 Whittier Court, above the Robb Senior Center).

This week’s agenda includes an update on progress in the feasibility study, including continued discussion and evaluation of site option. The full agenda can be found here on the the town website.

To have future meeting agendas automatically emailed to you or to receive text messages when an agenda is posted, please sign up through Andover’s Notify Me tool.

We look forward to seeing you there, but if you cannot attend in person, meetings are recorded by AndoverTV and available in their meeting archive.

REMINDER! Public tours of Andover High will be held Wednesday, January 11, 2023, running continuously between 5:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Tours will be followed by a community forum at 7:00 PM in the high school cafeteria.

Please join us to see current conditions within the school facility and to share your impression with the Building Committee and architects. Your feedback will continue to inform options for a potential building project at Andover High.

Andover High tours will also be held for the public on Saturday, January 21, 2023, running continuously between 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM. We look forward to seeing you on one or both of these dates.

Thank you to Danvers and Arlington Public Schools for inviting the Andover High School Building Committee and other district resources to tour their high schools this past weekend. 

Danvers renovated and added to their high school in 2013, and Arlington is currently in the midst of a multi-phase new construction project on an occupied site. In these ways, each project has similarities to potential improvement paths for Andover High.

It was helpful to see the way space is used in these buildings, and to hear from educators and administrators as to what is working and what they might have done differently. Having also recently toured Brookline High School, the Andover team is making good progress in identifying the types of 21st century spaces that would best fit Andover students, and the pros/cons of various project approaches.

We are looking forward to continuing our conversations with the Andover community this week, during the Andover High tours (running continuously Wednesday from 5:30pm to 7pm) and our next Community Forum (Wednesday at 7pm in the AHS cafeteria). See you there!

The Andover High Building Committee will be hosting two community tours in January, inviting the public to experience current conditions at Andover High School.

The first tour on January 11th will be followed by a community forum, and a second tour will be held on January 21st. Please see the attached flyer for more information.

We look forward to seeing you there!

During the Andover High School Building Committee Meeting on 12/20/2022, the Committee reviewed all site approaches previously presented at the last meeting and voted to refine the approaches to three, as follows:

• Add/Reno – Courtyard Approach
• New Construction – Campus #2 Approach (with attached “right-sized” auditorium or with renovated Collins Center)
• New Construction – Standalone Approach (with attached “right-sized” auditorium or with renovated Collins Center)

Please see concept images in posts or within full 12/20/2022 SBC presentation available here.

Additionally, at the meeting the Committee discussed ongoing meetings with stakeholders, the project timeline, approach evaluation criteria, and public outreach efforts including the January 11th and January 21st tours of the existing Andover High School.

Please join the next Building Committee meeting on 1/12/2023 at 7:50AM in the School Committee room, which is on the second floor of 30 Whittier Court, above the Robb Senior Center.

Approaches Moving Toward Further Development:

During the Andover High School Building Committee Meeting on 12/8/2022, HMFH Architects introduced additional preliminary site approaches for the first time and discussed the approaches shown at the 11/22/2022 Building Committee meeting.

The Committee discussed ongoing meetings with stakeholders, the project timeline, approach evaluation criteria, and public outreach efforts. At the next meeting, the Committee will vote to eliminate the least favorable approaches. HMFH brought a physical model to demonstrate preliminary massing of each. Photos of the physical models are included in the presentation.

All preliminary concepts are shown below. The full presentation is included here, and describes each approach in more detail including pros/cons and additional views of each.

Each of these site approaches have these same assumptions or meet these requirements:

• Accommodate the full educational program planned for AHS
• Show a four-story school
• Avoid building within the wetland buffer
• Provide full access roads and fire lanes
• Involve phased construction
• Create a high school presence on the site
• Could have either a parking structure or surface parking

Additionally, most approaches remove the ledge at the current “sledding hill”

During the Andover High School Building Committee Meeting on 11/22/2022, HMFH Architects presented preliminary site approaches for the first time.

A summary of these preliminary concepts is shown below and the full presentation is included here.

Please note that the concepts are purposely not numbered, as HMFH is not limiting the analysis to these options alone. Instead, HMFH is hoping to solicit initial feedback from the Committee with these concepts.