Alabama High School Beams With Southern Charm

HARTSELLE, Ala. — With a façade of old southern charm and an interior boasting innovative educational design, students of Hartselle High School Monday moved into their new 260,000-square-foot school building.
Because the community held much sentiment for the previous building, the design sought to give a nod to the history of Hartselle High while still providing the amenities needed to provide a versatile space that would grow with the student population, said Carla Young-Percival, AIA, project architect from Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood’s Montgomery, Ala. office.
“Even though we took a huge nod to the historical presence there, they wanted the inside to be a very much modern high school with all the bells and whistles for technology,” said Young-Percival. “And it was also important to them that this school be a school would stand for 50 to 75 years much like their original school.”
The $44 million two-story facility, which began construction in June 2011, features a formal entrance with brick exterior complemented with four white columns and large arched windows evoking the genteel look of buildings past.
The building was funded in part by a $22 million grant to the district by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and was constructed by Decatur, Ala.-based Baggette Construction Inc.
Wetlands and a creek surround the 50-acre campus, and though aesthetically pleasing, the site itself proved to be the greatest difficulty in construction.
“There was a lot of the site that wasn’t really usable to us or we couldn’t use it without some remediation so we had a very large environmental package,” Young-Percival said.
A preservation plan mandated the project protect a certain amount wetlands, said Freddie Lynn Jr., regional vice president of Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood.
“We basically ended up using every square foot of the site because we had to keep five or six acres of wetlands,” Lynn said.

The school plans to later construct an amphitheater looking over the creek as well as a raised walkway so students from the high school and neighboring elementary school can take advantage of the site’s nature-based education.
“They’re actually very excited to be able to take their environmental engineer type classes out there and to utilize the site for hands on exploration,” Young-Percival said.
Efforts for environmental sustainability continue to the interior of the building with daylighting, chilled water system low-E glass and a very efficient HVAC system, said Lynn.

As part of Alabama law, the facility must provide a storm shelter. The design of Hartselle High School provides three storm shelters with such efficiency that the entire school population can be moved to safety within 10 minutes.

The reinforced concrete and steel plated storm shelters are incorporated into the corridors and classrooms of the high school, with one shelter on each floor and another that is also the band and choir room.

“It’s incorporated into the design in a way that you don’t know that it exists,” Lynn said.

The design made certain to create more fluid corridors with ample light and windows to look out onto the campuses natural views.

“Their older high school had been added onto over the years and it was very disjointed and it was very difficult to tell where you were going,” Young-Percival said. “It was important to us and the school to do what I call way finding, so there’s never a dead end corridor.”

With the high schools 1,200-seat auditorium and 1,600-seat arena-style gym, the community also gained a space for local events, Young-Percival said. Architects created something of a double entry way so that the public may take advantage of the space after hours while the academic facilities remain on lockdown.

“The school’s very happy that they can open it up to the community and keep the main part of the academic building closed down,” Young-Percival said.

The school, which came in on time and on budget, will allow the student population to grow to 1,200. The modern adaptable interior design, collegiate in appearance, is set to serve students and the community for years to come, Lynn said.

“They wanted a design that could adapt to changes in education and how they can deliver it,” Lynn said.