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02/07/02 Below are summaries of the following two meetings: Friends of RHS Historic Preservation Andrea Wilson called the meeting to order. Everyone at the meeting introduced themselves and stated what their connection to the school was. We were very fortunate to have at our meeting, Lorne McConachie, Principal of Bassetti Architects, who will be doing the design for the new school. We began by discussing the Landmarks process. The Seattle School District will be submitting a Landmarks package on RHS to the Landmarks board on February 1, 2002. Members of the public will be able to review what is in the package. Andrea and Laurie Medill plan on reviewing the package and will be looking at submitting any additional information they feel is necessary to beef up the package. Anyone who is interested in being a part of this process is urged to contact Andrea at our hotmail address. The Landmarks board meets on the first and third Wednedays of the month, and since their meetings are full for the month of February, RHS will probably be on the agenda in March. Everyone on our mailing list will receive a notice of that meeting, which is open to the public. At that meeting the Landmarks board will vote on whether to accept the proposal submitted by the Seattle School District. Then in 30 to 60 days the board will vote on the Landmarks designation at another public meeting. Mr. McConachie is on the Landmarks board, but will be excusing himself from voting on this issue, since he is involved in the project. The Landmarks board consists of 11 members, of which 3 positions are vacant. Five yes votes are needed to approve a Landmarks designation. Mr. McConachie suggested we look at the requirements of a Landmark as stated in the City of Seattle ordinance and back up our recommendations with the points noted in the ordinance. Distinct features of the building were mentioned, including the lobby, auditorium, stairwells, organ, murals, old gyms, and the marble in the old girls' shower room, in addition to the exterior structure. A discussion on the organ followed. Part of the history of the organ includes that in many years past, the organ was played every morning when the students were entering the school building. The organ was repaired in the 1980's and was the focus of a senior project in the 1990's. Linnea will be trying to contact the student who did the senior project. We also discussed earthquake requirements for the building; Skilling will be the consultant for that on this project. We also discussed the auditorium, and Bassetti has a theater consultant for that part of the project. We also discussed the report from the Seattle Design Team involving the standards that will be addressed for this project. There was some concern expressed that the schematic plans shown in the report were misleading. Mr. McConachie stated that they were just some ideas that were generated in one of the meetings, and that no one was bound by them. There then was discussion of the role of the architect in the design of the building and our concerns about historic preservation. We were encouraged by the statements Mr. McConachie made concerning this issue. Everyone was reminded of the Environmential Impact Statement meeting on January 29, 2002, at 7:00 PM in the RHS cafeteria. It was also noted that the Design Review Committee would be having an orientation meeting on January 25. The meeting was adjourned with some people interested in looking at the suggested site plans that Andrea had a copy of, having gotten them off the Seattle Public Schools web site. Submitted by Linda Tatta and Andrea Wilson Design Review Committee: January 25, 2002 The meeting began at 9:00 AM at the Silver Cloud Inn. Gary Baldasari, of the Seattle School District welcomed us to the meeting. We were all asked to introduce ourselves, state where we lived, who we represented and what we wanted to accomplish during the process of designing the new Roosevelt. Gary Baldasari and Charlie Demming (from Heery International) then spoke of the roles of the project team, introducing those members from the SCD, Heery International, Bassetti Architects, etc., and the School Design Team. Marilyn Brockman, of Bassetti Architects, then presented an overview of the architectural deign process: program phase (determining the design standards), explore existing conditions (site, traffic, soil, etc. - this phase would be going on during the program phase), conceptual design (looks at options, possibly three - does the design meet the criteria, such as site circulation, public spaces, specific classrooms?) and design development (fine tuning the conceptual design and looking at interior details). She showed some of the drawings that were done for West Seattle High, which Andrea found very interesting. We then had a brief break where Andrea talked to Marilyn at length about West Seattle. Andrea feels that this would be an important project for the Friends of RHS Historic Preservation to visit, along with Latona and the Edmonds-Woodway High School. We started again with a presentation by Charlie Demming of the project scope, bond information, budget, project schedule and the status of the regulatory process. There was a discussion of the departure process, which is a negotiating process with the city on such issues as parking requirements. We then had another brief break and had a box lunch. After lunch, we had an interesting presentation by Marilyn Brockman on Bassatti as a firm, showing some of their projects, and discussing her background. She is from Boston where she worked an a variety of historical properties before coming to Seattle. We then had a presentation of the School Design Team Process by Nan Stavnshoj and Sharon Wilkins of the Seattle School District. This information was based on four to five meetings that took place last fall concerning the Gates Transformation and preparation of the design specifications. The outcome was a report on generic design specifications that are quite different from those in the past. These new specifications give each school more flexability and are quite interesting. The minutes of last fall's meetings are on the school district's web page. I urge all of you to read them, because they are a strong factor in how the design of the building will evolve. <http://www.seattleschools.org/area/facilities/index.xml Click on BXL and/or School Design Team on the left of the screen. At this point it was discussed that instead of the Design Review Committee, we are now the School Design Team for Roosevelt High School, and that the committee will be expanded to include possibly more students and Seattle School District Design Team members. Then we were given a copy of the site plans that were to be discussed at the Environmential Impact Statement meeting on January 29, 2002. The meeting adjourned at 2:00 PM. Submitted by Andrea Wilson
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