Conn. firm to design new Norwalk High
NORWALK — A New Britain-based architectural firm has been awarded a nearly $6 million contract to design the new Norwalk High School.
In a 13-1 vote, the Common Council on Tuesday approved a contract with Kaestle Boos Associates, a firm that specializes in designing school buildings and other municipal facilities.
“Kaestle Boos was the low bidder and has extensive experience in designing schools in Connecticut and the neighboring states,” Councilmember Tom Livingston said. “They also have experience building schools on site of existing schools while the schools are occupied and active, which is really important for this project.”
The $189 million construction project became possible after the state announced in
late 2019 that it would cover 80 percent of the costs associated with designing and building a new 330,000-square-foot high school.
The new building, which will increase the school’s capacity to 2,000 students, will cost the city roughly $40 million. It will be built on the same site of the existing school on Calvin Murphy Drive, which school officials believe has fallen into disrepair. Kaestle Boos was chosen after a committee made up of school board members, council members and city officials narrowed an initial field of nine applicants to three finalists. The firm’s $5.9 million bid was about $2 million less than the bids submitted by TSKP STUDIO/Tecton Architects and The S/L/ A/M Collaborative, the two other finalists.
“Kaestle Boos’ approach to the proposed new Norwalk High School is to design a highly efficient three-story compact building footprint to limit unnecessary sprawl for students who currently traverse long distances throughout the building during school days,” the firm wrote in a memo.
City officials originally proposed to build the new school in phases over a period of three years. But now officials are considering erecting the new building on the existing school’s athletic fields to cut down on costs and construction time, according to Alan Lo, the city’s building and facilities manager.
“By building a separate building we don’t interfere with the student’s education for three years, versus we move them around every year from here to there. Demolishing a portion of an existing building is a very difficult task,” Lo said at a council committee meeting last week, adding that a final decision has not been made.
Councilmember Thomas Keegan, who was the only member to vote against the contract, warned that the cost of constructing the new high school will eventually balloon beyond the current estimates. Instead of moving forward with the project, he said, the council should focus on building a new South Norwalk elementary school.
“I believe that, at the end of the day, we are going to be unpleasantly surprised at how expensive this project becomes,” Keegan said.
Mayor Harry Rilling said the city is committed to opening a new school in the South Norwalk area, which has gone without a dedicated neighborhood school for more than 40 years.
The city has allocated $70 million to renovate Columbus Magnet School and build a new school in South Norwalk, but issues acquiring land have delayed the project from moving forward.
“We are working very hard to make sure that we do end up with a South Norwalk school,” he said, “because having to transport children from one end of town to the other certainly compromises their educational experience and makes it more difficult for them to have a healthy learning environment.”