SEI designed the Forest Park High School Modernization/Addition project. In addition to the typical comprehensive high school program Forest Park will also serve as a Center for Career Technology Education featuring IT Networking, Media Production, Law and Leadership, Food and Beverage Management, Business Management, Finance and Accounting, and Automotive programs.
SEI has collaborated with all members of the City Schools Partnership to evolve the feasibility approach to improve building efficiency, program adjacencies, vertical circulation, natural lighting and views. In addition to the students and staff utilizing the school, the building acts as a community hub after hours and on weekends all year round just as much as the outdoor athletic programs. Currently the public functions within the school such as the cafeteria, gymnasium, natatorium, and media center are stratified throughout the building on three levels. SEI designed a solution which took the vertically stacked programs, renovated them and made them accessible off hours to the community by designing a brand new public atrium in the center of the existing building. This atrium facilitates a separation between public and private functions of the building while maintaining safety and security using locked doors from the atrium into the classroom wings. Also in the project's program was a new auxiliary gymnasium, black box theater, community space, and art suite. These new programs are located adjacent to the existing public wing of the building with a two-story community entrance in between acting as a beacon to draw in the community.
The exterior of the building is crafted in reaction to its urban context to addresses the street edge, lines of site and access, security and universal accessibility, urban pedestrian scale and public outdoor spaces to relate to its community. Beyond the established goals of LEED Silver; the buildings facades and systems are designed to featuring passive sustainable strategies to best exploit solar orientation and the benefits of the site.
Throughout the design, SEI successfully collaborated with the CM to provide value engineering options and constructability reviews without negatively impacting the program. As a result, the project bid under budget.