YOUNGSTOWN New school designed for neighborhood

Officials hope the new building encourages pupils to choose the public school.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Architects planning a new Williamson Elementary School for the city's South Side are working to create a building that makes a good neighbor.
"The building itself is designed to assimilate into the neighborhood, to be neighborhood-friendly," said Ch & eacute;rie A. Hayek of MS Consultants Inc.
"It needed to be friendly, to be inviting. ... We wanted to develop a building the community can be proud of."
Hayek said a friendlier look was accomplished by drafting plans for the building that break its high, second-story roof into sections. A goal was to design a building that fits into a residential area with a lot of pedestrian traffic, Hayek said.
The 48,000-square-foot building will replace the current school on Williamson and Myrtle avenues. School officials purchased seven properties to make way for the structure and its driveways.
The new building features two separate driveways, designed to facilitate car and bus traffic, Hayek said. Though bus traffic will pull from the school driveway onto Williamson Avenue, parents and other visitors will exit onto Myrtle.
Hayek said some pupils who are dropped off by parents currently face four lanes of Williamson Avenue traffic. The new system keeps them safer.
District project
The new school is part of a $182 million districtwide facilities improvement project, funded 80 percent by the state School Facilities Commission and 20 percent by a 4.4-mill tax issue.
Construction of Williamson is expected to begin in summer 2004, and the school is expected to open for fall 2006, said Tony DeNiro Jr., executive director of school business affairs.
"Hopefully we can bring students back to that area," DeNiro said. "We want to encourage students to come back to the Youngstown city schools."
Plans feature a media center with a computer lab on the first floor -- rather than the current second-floor -- to offer pupils and the community easier access. The center also features a learning lab/conference area and a reading area with a bench seat across from a glass wall that separates it from the computer lab.
What's planned
Classrooms are stacked in the two-story area of the building, and many overlook an outdoor courtyard. All classrooms have at least three windows.
A gymnasium and cafeteria will be separated by a raised stage that can be used either way. It can also be closed off from the gym.
Hayek said original plans called for the renovation of the school, but a closer look discovered some structural, electrical, mechanical and energy efficiency problems that might cause trouble down the road but would be costly to resolve. (DeNiro pointed out that none of the problems pose any risk to current students.)
Though the original plans also called for glazed concrete bricks, the building will now be built completely from brick and split-face concrete because of cost concerns.
The change means that the building's exterior walls will not be as colorful, Hayek and DeNiro said, but it will still maintain a somewhat southwestern look.
While interior plans are not complete, Hayek said plans are to include stimulating, bright colors in hallways, gym and dining areas and more muted colors in classrooms.
"It's going to be a very pleasing building to look at. It's going to be bright, DeNiro said. "It's a beautiful building. The first time they [architects] presented it, I fell in love with it."