ThisWeek CW 10/02/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/09/29/vswc-architects-chosen-to-design-new-high-school.html

Officials at the Groveport Madison school district continue making progress toward new high school facilities with the hiring of an architecture firm that will be responsible for the project design.

At a special meeting Sept. 22, board of education members approved the hiring of VSWC Architects, based in Mason, near Cincinnati.

VSWC and two other firms, SHP and Moody Nolan, participated in back-to-back presentation meetings held at the district’s administration offices earlier in the day, before final scoring was completed to choose the winner.

“The decision was made based upon several criteria, including the firm’s capacity to facilitate the construction, having a track record with a low number of change orders, and their history of delivering projects on time and under budget,” Superintendent Bruce Hoover said.

According to Hoover, further consideration was given as to whether the company had previously worked with DeJong-Richter, the Dublin firm hired to lead the educational visionary team for the project.

The Ohio Schools Facilities Commission will negotiate project costs directly with VSWC, Hoover said, with the contract projected to be finalized by November. At that point, he said, the construction contractor will be selected.

“We’ve met over the last month working with OSFC to qualify architects,” Hoover told the board at its Sept. 10 meeting. “There were 13 that were qualified and applied to be reviewed.

“The committee was made up of people from OSFC and the district and we went through each proposal and scored out those proposals.”

Representing the district were Hoover, board President Bryan Shoemaker, Treasurer Tony Swartz and Facility Manager Bob Reigns.

Hoover said the next step will be to work with VSWC and DeJong-Richter to identify and invite people from around the community to be a part of a three-day educational visioning workshop.

Information gathered during the workshop from community and school representatives will be used in future design committees to determine how the space in the new building will be used.