Maine West ready for $9.8M athletic facilities addition
From above, Maine West High School in Des Plaines appears as the hub and spokes of a bicycle wheel.
The school was designed and built in 1959 with the intention of having three self-contained high schools within one building, each wing with a principal and small gymnasium of its own.
But as academic and athletic needs changed - and the school district population increased - Maine West grew in size, and the district built a larger spectator gym to host basketball games and school assemblies.
Today, nearly five decades after that gym opened, Maine Township High School District 207 officials are planning to expand again, with a $9.8 million, 23,000-square-foot athletic building addition that will bring Maine West's weight room, wrestling room and locker rooms out of the school's basement, where they've been since the school's opening.
The school board held a special meeting at 7 a.m. today where it approved a construction contract with Happ Builders, which is expected to break ground on the addition next month.
District officials have been planning the add-on the past couple of years. They've contemplated building a larger field house to match facilities at Maine East and South, but they say that's not in the budget right now.
The addition will be funded with annual revenue from property taxes and state funds and by dipping into a portion of the district's $70 million reserve fund.
The district opted not to borrow funds or ask voters for money to pay for the project, which is one of the largest and most expensive items in the district's 10-year capital improvement plan.
"This district has been incredibly fiscally prudent, essentially doing it the old-fashioned way - saving money to pay cash for pretty big building projects," Superintendent Ken Wallace said. "Nobody does that, besides us."
Though they tried to find cost savings by using cheaper pillars and bricks, members of the school board's buildings and grounds committee recommended using precast concrete pillars and larger bricks to maintain a seamless architectural design between the gym and new building.
"When this building's here 50 years from now, we don't want people walking up and saying, 'Oh, that's an addition.' We want them walking up and saying, 'Oh, that was originally part of this whole structure,'" said board member Sean Sullivan. "We want it to have a sharp look. We're trying to turn around and keep Maine West the great school design that it is."
The school's indoor track will remain in the Maine West basement, under the cafeteria, and the rest of the basement will be used for storage.
Not having a track in the new athletic addition is what separates it from a full-fledged field house. District officials say Maine West's campus has space near the existing gym to accommodate a field house in the future.
The renovated gym will be air-conditioned and include sprinklers.
Improvements to the current gym are expected to be complete by the start of the school year in August. Final completion of the addition is targeted for the end of December.