Hempfield district paid $2.4M to firm that resigned from construction project

The Hempfield Area School District paid $2.4 million for work completed by an architecture firm that resigned last week from a delayed high school construction project.

According to a letter from interim Superintendent Kimberlie Rieffannacht, the cost came after the Westmoreland County district honored its contract with Bellevue-based CORE Architects and paid for work completed in a feasibility study and preconstruction portion of the project, which would tear the high school down to its structural system and rebuild everything as new.

School directors last week approved the resignation of CORE Architects from the project. The district is now advertising for requests for proposals for architectural services.

“The project team will work to determine what portions of the pre-construction work completed will help progress the project and has confidence that construction can move forward with achieving the project goals within the currently approved budget,” Ms. Rieffannacht wrote.

District officials have been working on the project for years. But school directors in August rejected bids that came in at a total of $149 million for the first phase of construction, or $16 million more than expected. The uptick included a 28% increase in general construction costs while almost doubling the price of a new swimming pool.

At the time, school directors decided to go back to the drawing board to determine how to move forward with the project at a more reasonable price. A month later they hired McKinley Architecture and Engineering as an owner’s representative to help the district determine the project’s next steps.

But during that August meeting district officials were frustrated after they were forced to delay the project that has been in the works since school directors voted in 2022 to rebuild everything as new rather than construct a new high school or renovate the existing structure. At the time it was expected to cost between $97 million and $110 million.

School directors last Monday received one of their first public updates on the project since the summer when construction manager SitelogiQ presented to the board, reinforcing their commitment to the project and suggesting alternative funding sources that could be pursued.

The district is now working to hire a new architecture firm before deciding on next steps.

“As a new architectural firm is selected and a new timeline is developed, updates will be provided to the public promptly,” Ms. Rieffannacht wrote. “The goal of the Hempfield Area School Board and administration is to provide a facility that this community can be proud of and will continue to work through these changes to provide that.”