Please join the AHS Building Committee at our next public meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 8:15 AM in the Select Board Conference Room (Town Offices, 36 Bartlett Street).

HMFH Architects will be providing a design update that analyzes the two remaining site approaches that were selected for further exploration and pricing during the last AHS Building Committee meeting on 2/9/2023.

As a reminder, the two remaining site approaches selected are “Courtyard” (addition/renovation) and “Campus 2” (new building). Please see the earlier news update for more information related to this decision.

As part of the March 2nd design update, HMFH will provide a preliminary design and construction schedule for both site approaches, continue discussions on traffic flow, provide athletic program comparisons/flexibility in field layouts, review the current Space Programming Summary, examine updated evaluation criteria, etc.

The AHS Building Committee will also be reviewing an updated timeline for a path to vote on a recommended option to the School Committee and Select Board and will discuss scheduling of additional community forums and building committee meetings. Here is a high-level path to the AHS Building Committee’s vote to recommend a preferred option:

• March 2nd: AHS Building Committee Meeting, including further evaluation of two remaining site approaches
• March 9th: Community Forum at Memorial Hall Library at 7:00 PM
• March 23rd: AHS Building Committee meeting, including presentation of preliminary cost information
• March 29th: Community Forum at Memorial Hall Library at 7:00 PM
• March 30th: AHS Building Committee Meeting, including possible vote to recommend preferred option
• Early April (TBD): Tentative AHS Building Committee Meeting, including vote to recommend preferred option if not decided in late March

To hear more of what will be covered during the meeting, please see the full agenda 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 streamed live by AndoverTV and available in their meeting archive.

During the Andover High School Building Committee Meeting on 2/9/2023, the committee unanimously voted to narrow the three remaining site approaches to two. The two site approaches selected for further exploration and pricing were “Courtyard” (Addition/Renovation) and “Campus 2” (New Building).

The committee’s decision was based on months of evaluation, community input, and discussions with students, teachers/school staff, town departments, advisory committees, etc. Each approach will meet the educational plan for Andover students, and factors driving the decision to support “Campus 2” over the “Stand Alone” approach included: location on site, accessibility, and community use.

During the meeting, HMFH Architects provided a comparison of the existing athletic programs and site amenities versus potential changes, opportunities for future expansion, pedestrian zones, and reviewed the evaluation criteria and scoring between the Stand Alone and Campus 2 new building site approaches to help inform the committee’s decision. The scoring criteria included consideration of building layout, construction impact, site circulation, sustainability factors, space for potential amenities (outdoor learning space, fields, etc.), and site adjacencies (proximity to field house, efficient layout, clear community zones, etc.).

Over the coming weeks, design documents will be issued to the OPM and Architect’s construction cost estimators for preliminary pricing of both site approaches. Inclusion of a future parking garage and determination of either a renovation of the existing Collins Center or a new auditorium has not yet been decided and is pending cost information to inform the Building Committee’s recommendation.

Pricing information for both site approaches, a parking garage, and Collins Center vs. new auditorium will be presented to the Building Committee in late March.

The following graphics summarizes the 2 site approaches undergoing continued exploration and the most recent floor plan updates. The full February 9th Building Committee presentation can be found here.

Please join the AHS Building Committee at our next public meeting, scheduled for Thursday, February 9, 2023, at 7:50 AM in the School Committee room (2nd floor of 30 Whittier Court, above the Robb Senior Center).

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Memorial Hall Library for the community forum on Monday and thoughtful opinions on the different site approaches! With the feedback received from the community forum, the AHS Building Committee will be voting to reduce the number of site approaches from 3 to 2 during this Thursday’s meeting.

The final approaches will include the Courtyard (Addition/Renovation) and either selection of Campus 2 or Stand Alone for the new building approaches.

To help inform the committee’s decision, the project team will be focusing the presentation on the differences between Campus 2 and Stand Alone. This will involve reviewing preliminary building floor plans/space programming, landscape architecture configurations, athletic program comparisons, pedestrian zones, potential for future expansion, etc.

The project team has also established evaluation criteria to compare the different site approaches (including the parking structure and Collins Center/new auditorium options). The two site approaches selected will then be shared with PMA’s and HMFH’s cost estimators for development of a cost analysis in late March.

To hear more of what will be covered during the meeting, please see the Town website, the full agenda can be found here.

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 streamed live by AndoverTV and available in their meeting archive.

During the Andover High School Building Committee Meeting on 1/26/2023, PMA Consultants and HMFH Architects presented an update of the draft Feasibility and Schematic Design timeline.

The Landscape Architect, Arcadis|IBI Group presented preliminary landscaping configurations for each remaining site approach and overviewed the following considerations for each:

• traffic flow (cars and buses)
• parking (surface parking vs garage, with the Building Committee awaiting cost information before making a recommendation as to whether to include a parking structure in the scope of a future project)
• sports fields (count and orientation)
• a comparison of each approach against the proposed athletic programs/existing conditions

Additional potential site amenities such as tennis courts, basketball courts, skate park, and outdoor learning spaces were also discussed.

The following graphic summarizes the 3 remaining site approaches:

The full presentation – including the initial landscape architect designs – from the 1/26/23 meeting can be found here.

Additionally, the Committee provided a reminder that there is another community forum scheduled for Monday, February 6, 2023, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at the Memorial Hall Library. We look forward to seeing you there!

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!