Construction of new Glenbard West science wing gets green light
The Glenbard High School District 87 school board awarded on Monday a $10.5 million contract to a construction company to build a new science wing at Glenbard West High School.
The district is set to break ground on the project — expected to cost a total of $16.5 million — within the next couple of weeks. Now, the district must tackle how to set up a major construction zone on a campus atop a hill — while students are in school.
One logistic is figuring out where to direct buses. Drivers currently pull in from the west side of the building's rear (closest to Lake Ellyn) and exit on the east, where the three-story, 28,000-square-foot addition will be built.
A gatekeeper of sorts could open temporary, chain-length fencing to allow buses through and then close it back up, or the district may reroute buses entirely, said Chris McClain, assistant superintendent for finance and operations. Those decisions will be made before school starts Aug. 24, McClain said.
“It's a complicated site where we're adding the addition,” McClain told the school board Monday. “It's a very tight campus with a lot of people and bus traffic and road traffic and pedestrian traffic. And so we're going to have to take great pains to make sure that our logistics plan is really solid with safety really as our No. 1 priority for our students and staff and community.”
Walsh Construction Co. was hired Monday as the general contractor. Performance Services Inc. will handle the mechanical, electrical and plumbing work.
The $16.5 million estimated budget will pay for the building of the addition, renovations in the main building and a chiller plant that will bring air conditioning to the whole school. Next summer, the interior renovations — alone costing about $1.6 million — will convert six old science labs into eight general education classrooms and help ease overcrowding.
School board members applauded architects and administrators for redesigning an outdoor utility area in response to complaints from neighbors upset about noise and the loss of trees in the George Zahrobsky Botanical Garden.
“Input like that has been helpful and productive,” McClain said. “And through the process, I think we have a better project for it.”
An emergency generator will now be moved inside a mechanical room in the addition. That allows the district to shift the roughly 17-foot cooling tower and a retaining wall that will screen the equipment closer to the building and away from neighboring homes.
“I think it's really important that we do everything we can to mitigate the impact,” board member Mary Ozog said.
By shrinking the area, crews won't have to excavate as much of what's known as “the Hill” and tear down as many trees. An arborist also will work with Legat Architects to lessen the damage to trees during construction.
In the 1980s, Zahrobsky, the school's former science department chairman, and his students saved the wooded garden from housing developers and would use it as a mini arboretum. Zahrobsky, Glenbard West's assistant principal and residents have done an inventory of the trees planted as memorials for students, teachers and benefactors, McClain said. From that cataloging, about 10 to 20 new ones will be replanted and rededicated.
A Sierra Club chapter also has removed some 400 to 500 plants from the diverse garden, replanted them elsewhere on campus or donated them to the Glen Ellyn Park District.