Oak Park and River Forest High School board eyes remake of arts facilities

Chicago Tribune

07-07-2025

While the nearly $102 million Project 2 demolition and reconstruction of the southeast portion of Oak Park and River Forest High School is only about halfway done, thoughts are already turning to the next major project at the school.
The OPRF District 200 Board of Education members recently heard a programming report about the goals of what is known as Project 3, which if approved would include the demolition and reconstruction of the southwest portion of the building. It's the next of five phases in OPRF's Imagine plan, named after a work group of community members that met to imagine the future of the school building.
Project 3 will focus on the arts, especially music and theater. The two co-chairs of the Imagine work group, Lynn Kamenitsa, who is also a director of the Imagine Foundation, and Mike Poirier, presented the programming report to the School Board June 12. Alyson Sternquist, a project manager for the district's architectural firm, FGMA, who led the Project 2 design also spoke to the board. They all said the current facilities for arts and music in the southwest portion of the building need to be improved.
'Many are outdated, some of them are physically failing,' Kamenitsa said. 'Most of them are not accessible in the sense of ADA accessibility and many of them present health and safety concerns.'
Kamenitsa said the physical shortcomings of the current spaces impair instruction.
'The programs that use those spaces, their needs aren't met,' Kamenista said. 'The result is that there is lost instructional time, it compromises faculty's ability to deliver their curriculum and, in the case of music, to conduct state mandated student assessments.'
Kamenitsa said the space in the southwest portion of the building cannot be configured to meet current needs and standards. The report recommended new construction include new music classrooms and facilities, a Black Box theater that would mostly be used for student directed plays, some new physical education spaces including an adventure gym space, a cardio room, a trainer space, a new wrestling room and a green roof to manage stormwater runoff and designed to accommodate any future solar panels.
The current 2,180 square foot band room is much too small and was not designed for the 125 or so students that are now in the band. Sternquist said current standards call for music spaces to have 30 square feet per student which would suggest a band room of 3,750 square feet. The programming report states the current band room is undersized, has hazardous noise levels, lacks recording and digital capability and the tiered floor is not ADA compliant. The recommendation is to have a double height ceiling, to get rid of risers and to accommodate recording and digital teaching needs. The report also envisions 18 ensemble practice rooms of various sizes.
The next step in the process will be for the architectural firm FGMA to develop a conceptual design which should be ready by September. The school board voted to pay FGMA $182,500 for the conceptual design. After the board receives the conceptual design it will weigh in on what it desires and then by next spring, a detailed schematic design will be developed. School officials said the scope and cost of Project 3 cannot be determined until a schematic design is approved. Once the cost is determined the School Board will have to decide how to pay for Project 3. Work would not start until after Project 2 is completed next summer.
Project 1, which was completed in 2023, included, among other things, a new two story student commons area, 15 new classrooms, including two new science labs, eight all gender bathrooms, a new cafeteria and a renovated main entrance. Project 1 cost $42.2 million and was paid for by using cash reserves. Project 2 is being paid for by a combination of cash reserves and borrowing along with some charitable donations raised by the Imagine Foundation.
Next fall a community meeting will be held to solicit community input. Board member Tim Brandhorst said that input will be vital and suggested that at least one more community meeting be held next year.
'I hope that won't be the only opportunity for the community to tell us what they think about this project,' said Brandhorst about the one scheduled community meeting.
Brandhorst also suggested trips to other area high schools could be scheduled to show taxpayers the facilities at other schools.
Board member Josh Gertz, concerned about costs, wondered if the band and orchestra could perhaps share the same room but was told that was not realistic.
'All of these spaces are currently used all day long,' Sternquist said, noting that OPRF has robust band, orchestra and chorus programs. 'It's not realistic for band and orchestra to use the same space based on just the current curriculum.'