Symphony #2010 ~ Movement 2009 in Grays

There is an unplugged symphony to be heard in this post.

A four part movement in Grays.

Simply adjust your vision away from color.

Turn up the volume and hear the quiet harmony of light and shadow.

All of these images can be found in the posts that follow.

We will begin in the band room.

Listen here now...

Intro
Overture
follow the curving movement into a geometric stanzawitness an Escher interlude

in poly-rhythmic form
sense quiet darkness;

with high light
relax as tetris drops
into negative space
falling up or drifting down
descending powerful counterpoint patterns

Into a balanced present.

I hope you enjoyed this musical moment,

now read on below

for more new school to enjoy

in WHS 2010

**************************

disclaimer: these images are all from the new school,

however, a little artistic interpretation has been applied to a few of the images :-)

The Commons ~ the Peoples Space

It is a long hallway, the run from the far end under the second floor seen here is more than the length of a foot ball field!
In the photo above, the narrow hall is the passageway that parallels the commons.

The photo above shows the commons area on the south end. The serving area of the cafeteria is beneath the upper traverse. The photo was taken standing in what will be the main portion of the dining area.

To orient to the location from this corner, the main gym is on the left and the cafeteria is on the right.

This is the top level of our main stairway.

The "Grande' Stairs" are located on the right and opposite of this bank of windows.This is an open public space that will serve as the dining area during lunches and the lobby area for ball games and other activities.

I am sure this years juniors are already looking forward to having their junior senior prom here next year!

The dry wall has begun to be put in place. It is unfinished, and its raw stage at this point, not even painted. The blue is a color coding that identifies the type of board it is. This is not your typical home wall board, it is super thick and dense and very durable compared to the walls in your home.

It is exciting to see the forms being boxed in and taking shape in their space.

These are the windows along the commons and dining area opposite of the stairway.

The storefront (framing) is a brushed steel finish on aluminum.

It provides a very contemporary and clean line to play off the organic nature of the stone work.

There is a second stairway at the north end of the commons as well.

It is smaller and is also banked by a wall of windows. This commons space will be a show place, a reception area, a celebratory space for our students and our community attending games, concerts, or theatrical performances.

Media Center ~ Some call it the Library

A Media Center by any other name might be called the Library. But on our plans it is called the LRV ~ an acronym for "Listening Reading Viewing" space. Took me a long time to get to that from the old Library ;-)
As you walk into our main entrance, the front door you pass by the theater and foyer first. Then just as you approach the commons you will see a long bank of windows on the right. This is our Media Center South window wall.

From out in the commons looking back as you round that corner the media center is on the left. BTW, the tall monolith is the elevator shaft in the center of our main entrance.

In this photo you have stepped inside the front door of the media center. Looking left toward the north wall and the exit.

This view is just inside the entrance looking right to the south window wall in the first photo.

This is the area that will become the circulation desk. Notice the curved soffitt above the area where the main desk will be.

Step up a little closer to the main desk and you can see the contour. This radial form will be echoed in the curved shape of the main desk!

There are several break out rooms on both sides of the main desk along the back wall.

These will be equipment rooms and storage rooms and conference areas and a professional library space.

There is a dedicated technology space in the library as well.

This is the exit back into the commons area. The view out these windows is quite nice.

As can bee seen in this photo taken across from the exit door. The north stairway begins at this point on the right of the photo. I am looking forward to seeing our new media center fully equipped.

Auto Shop ~ Roll Up Doors Installed

These heavy steel roll up doors are a new addition to the Auto Shop area.
They are far superior to the old doors at our old WHS.

They are a marvel of machinery in their own right.

Our teachers wanted hand operated door lifts rather than remote or electric for safety and practicality.

This is the class room area. With so much technology involved in new cars now, a new auto shop had to have an instructional area for computer studies. It is designed so it can be observed from out in the shop or in reverse.

In addition to the classroom, there will be lifts, equipment and tool storage, and clean up areas in the Auto Shop.

Instrumental Music ~ Band Room

Stepping into the band room is an uplifting experience. Step through the two double doors and immediately look to the left ~
There is a 24 foot high wall of white with white ceiling decking, white hvac, and white utility lines.

And then immediately to the oposite wall is a bank of windows.

A very satisfying arrangement of three large north facing windows that allow great light and are creatively visually designed. This wall is a delight to see.

The ceiling will eventually have acoustical clouds hung below the systems and providing sound modulation within the room. Our instrumental music students will be inspired in this space for many years to come.

Cafeteria and Kitchen

The cafeteria serving area and the kitchen area equipment is being installed.
This is a view from the top of the main stairs of the serving area at the end of the commons.

This is from inside the serving area looking out through the windows into the commons. Seating for dining will be in the commons area and extends past the bank on windows on the left side of the commons.

Within the kitchen area are the storage and office and prep areas. Notice the floors have been tiled for sanitary wash down.

There are hood fans and ventilation and lighting units in the cooking area.

New and efficient, clean and massive are these units.

There are two walk in coolers.

In this corner view you can get a good feel for how large they are in comparison to the ladder.

Looking inside you can notice they are all stainless walls and floor.

Ample ventilation is provided to help keep food fresh while circulating air.

The walls are seamed stainless for wash down and for sanitation and durability.

Even the floor is stainless for cleanliness and storage strength.

And a wonderful feature is this loading dock, directly off the back of the kitchen. Large enough for tractor trailers to pull up and unload directly to the level of the back door of the kitchen. Good planning by all the designers pays off on this feature.

Academic Wings Finish Work Beginning

Step into the academic wings and notice that many finishing details are beginning to take place.

The finish on the class room doors is an cherry oak color, very warm and inviting.

In some of the rooms the vertical cabinets are being installed.

Each room will have two cabinets, double doors, and lockable.
They have a combination of shelves and storage space within.

Drop ceiling tiles have been installed and the pendant light banks are in place.

The finish colors are different in different areas, but they all feature earth tones and warm classroom color. The floors will have a vinyl floor covering which will go down after all other work is completed so they will remain undamaged.

Technology runs are in place in the rooms that will need multiple direct feeds.

Each outlet and port is coded and identified back to the control hubs.

Many of the academic hallways will feature large open windows at the end of the hallway. The open section on the left will be filled with lockers.

The banks of lockers are spread through out the wings, each floor and each wing has multiple lockers, none are out in the public space or commons.

They banks are 24 each with half locker sizes.

Some of the rooms feature as many as three windows.

The drafting room is shaping up with the cabinetry in place.

Even the inside of the cabinets is light and fresh looking.

Theater ~ A Peek Inside

We will have a foyer and entrance to the theater. A ticket booth will be on the outside in the lobby area.
This is a view of the balcony from the stage.

There will be two levels in the balcony. In this photo they are installing the tracks for the dividers. Folding doors will slide out and close off the balcony for diverse activities including small seminars, group activities, and testing.

This is the view of the stage from the balcony!

This is the stage from the house level

Looking up from where the previous shot was taken you can see the curved front edge of the balcony.

The projection and control room is at the back of the house. There is additional supply cable pulled to the center of house for remote control.

The ceiling and duct work have been blacked out now.

Concrete poured for the floor has set and now steps lead up the corners of the stage.

Mechanical Rooms

One nice thing that the new building will provide is adequate access to all mechanical fixtures and equipment.
Open and well lighted rooms with sufficient clearance and space for maintenance are provided in each wing and main areas. Our maintenance crew will be able to keep our systems running at top efficiency, keep them clean, and access them for repair if necessary.

None of them are on the roof or in the dungeon or cramped in as add ons. They are all a design component in the master plan.

This HVAC system looks like it will sufficiently do the job of providing clean and conditioned air for our school.

Science Rooms ~ Early Stages of Contruction

The science rooms are beginning to take shape. This is one of the last areas we are completing in the phases of construction. All of the water lines, gas lines, and ventilation systems are in place.
Many of the science rooms will have Solar Tubes to provide daylight and natural lighting to these rooms.

In this photo you can see the opening for the skylight entry in the ceiling.

This is just the roof dome for collecting light. To this will be added a tube (hence solartube) from the roof down to the drop ceiling. Within that tube will be mirrors and prisms that will amplify the light and boost the output within the room.

I do not have a picture of the completed installation to share here at home, but I did find this photo from a 2007 site visit to North Guilford high school while it was under construction. We went there to see the solar tubes and how they would function in our new WHS. The amount of light is not altered, it truly glows in the dark with this much amplification. I will try to find the close up I took of the lens at school soon and post that shot here too.

Cabinetry and Casework

The auxiliary gym is the holding place now for a hodgepodge of cabinetry
Every piece has been delivered and is awaiting installation.

All this looks random and disorganized, but each piece has come in with coding and room number designations

The majority of this gym full of cabinetry will be installed in the science area

Very specific sizes and types of drawers, cases, glass door cabinets, firesafe cabinets, vertical cabinets, and ADA scaled cabinets were all designed specifically for the areas they will be installed.

These rows of metal forms are the fume hoods for the science and chemistry areas.

Our fume hoods are manufactured by Thermo Scientific suppliers.

Morning Has Broken ~ and Updates Too

I have waited over a month for this photo. One of the few reasons I am thankful for the time change!

I waited for a morning when the low light at sunrise would light the building from the east while there was a dark or over cast sky. I have seen this before and hoped to catch it again.

The last time was back in January.
click here to go there!

Photographed from the parking lot, the landscaping adds a nice improvement to the perspective.

There were very specific regulations on what types of trees and shrubbery we could use. Most of the regs came from Town of Boone guidelines. For that, we benefit and so does the future.

Here we are looking from above the tennis courts.

It is almost as if the courts are swimming pools. I spotted them from the tower on top of Flat Top Mountain in Cone Manor this afternoon.

(Nearly 10 miles away!)

The Softball feel has sod down. If you scroll over and click to enlarge you will see the pattern of placement of the sod.

In this photo and the next you will see that the irrigation system for the baseball field is being put underground.

We will use some collected rainwater, gray water, from out cisterns to water our fields. And, remember, under all of the baseball field is our Geo thermal wells (250 wells at 400 feet deep each) that we will circulate back into our building.

to go there click here

The foundation and footers and now the rises for our stadium seating has been completed. The artificial turf is installed and painted. It was nice to see a regulation soccer field painted on the field as well as football striping.

This view straight down the bleacher is the south end of our building, the gym, wrestling room, weight rooms, and PE rooms are all on this end adjacent to the field.

The concession stand and bathrooms are shelled in, under roof, and behind doors now.

The Watauga end zone is sweet!

This view is from above the fields and looking south at the east face of our school. Beautiful to me. Hope you like the photos.

New Aerial photos of our New Campus

This is the most recent aerial photograph of our main building. Your point of view is from the south end of the building. You can see the three classroom wings, the commons, and the front areas.

The kitchen and cafeteria is in the center bottom of the photo. The dining area extends out the nearly half of the length of the white roofed "wedge" in the center. On the right side of the cafeteria is the auxiliary gym. North from that is the main gym, the main entrance (@ 3:00), the Media center and the theater (@2:00) and the Band room (@ 1:00).

This is the same South view of campus as the photo above. It is a great shot to see the full length of the developing campus. The New River is on the bottom right side of the photo. You will notice how the Second practice field sits below the main stadium,

Here we are flying in from the East approaching campus.

Turning around and approaching from the West in this photo. The newest section of the Boone Greenway trail can be seen in the bottom right and center. It parallels our campus along the slope of the stadium. What a nice addition to the town and community this section became. It was worked out to be created with funding from the Obesity Grant and used our local Town of Boone maintenance and construction crews. Another excellent example of community cooperation between agencies to create our future together!

This fly in is from the North and looks at campus from above our main driveway. Highway 421 would be at the bottom of this photo. I think it is important to look at the size and scope of this project. We have not just built a new high school. We have created an entire CAMPUS. And that is HUGE.

All aerial photographs are provided courtesy of SkySite:

SkySite Aerial Photography ~~~ click here
North Carolina's most consistent and reliable source for aerial photographs! Thanks for allowing me to post your photos for our community!

Pioneer Stadium ~ 2010 ~ Where we are and how we got here!

WOO HOO!They have painted the end zones :-) WATAUGAON WATAUGA!

GO PIONEERS

This is the most recent aerial photograph of our new stadium with artificial turf installed!

Mighty Mighty Pioneers

This was the stadium when we acquired the property in 2007.

This is one of the earliest aerial photos. The stadium will be just about in the center of the lower half of the image.

My first attempt of a panoramic stitch to show the excavation of the stadium site grading and rock removal.

We were excited then, and we are still excited to see the development of a first class stadium on this site. Notice all of the rock that had to be removed to grade out the field.

This is what lies beneath the surface ~

and this too, our storm water retention system is buried under our stadium

It is a massive system of connected pipes that will hold run off storm water and gradually disperse it

Once the system was put in place it was refilled with sand and clay and graded to just about 12 inches below playing surface

Upon the graded surface, specified gravel mix was added to raise the next twelve inches

In this photo you can see the precision of the gravel grade as it is being prepared for artificial turf

The runs are in place for track long and broad jump

The rolls of turf are turned out and temporarily placed and what happens???

A mighty wind rolls through out of the west and wastes the days work overnight!

But quickly the next day all pieces are put back in place and readied for gluing

and stitching and anchoring it in place

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas ~ well, bright green anyway!~

In these aerials you can see the scale and placement of our stadium. It is off the main parking lot on the south side of campus.

This is a field we can play on for many many years to come. The artificial turf will save us money, be environmentally green, and be more sustainable over the years than natural turf which has to be fertilized, watered, groomed, and sodded regularly at the cost of nearly $30,000 annually.

It was a wise decision to go with artificial turf on a field that will host football, soccer, lacrosse, and many other competitors for many years to come.

Now it is Done ... (all but the finish lines ;-)

A Favorite Building View

Scroll over and click to enlarge!

I like this view of our school. I think it is one of the best angles to see the front side of the entire building. It is seen from above the tennis courts on the east side looking west.
You will see Howard's Knob in the background behind our school. I like seeing the roof line and the changes from here. You can also view the main entrance in the middle of the school, and get a sense for the length of the building. It is one and a half football fields long!

FYI ~ I did PS out one light pole and several construction vehicles to show this clean overview. You should click on it and look around, it is scaled for large viewing. See if you can see where I photoshopped it! Enjoy!

WHS Tennis ~ Pioneer Blue

In recognition of our WHS Women's Tennis accomplishments I'll post pics tonight of our new Pioneer Blue Tennis Courts.

The courts are in, the fencing pulled, the lighting posted, landscaping beginning, and we are ready to dominate on blue.
As you see we have ample fencing on all court sides and a sloped bank on the east and south side. This is the view from the south end of the courts. Our lighting can be studied here, there are six posts

This is my favorite angle. I suspect many a match will be watched from this grassy knoll to the east of the courts. The view across the parking lot to the school is excellent from this point too.

We have six courts, they are all blue, since as we know, Blue Rules!

And I say that proudly.

Congratulations to our Watauga Women's Tennis who placed first in our conference and yesterday received the #1 seed in the state tournament. Next season on these courts ladies, you will dominate!

Go Pioneers!

Stone Element Central to Commons

This is the front, main entrance to the school. these columns are covered with a fabricated stone. I think the color choice looks nice with our masonry colors. You will enter the front door between these columns.
Here is a close up view of the colors of stone accent we chose. Even though these are manufactured stone, they are not cheap facade decoration. Each stone must be set and the mortar recessed through out the work. It is very well done and looks quite impressive up close.

If you walk straight through the main entrance and into the commons the same stone elements are echoed there in.

The middle of the commons is the location of these feature windows.
As you can see, the same stone work is used in the columns of these windows. (windows are not installed at this time)

This view is from the third floor looking down at the commons from the catwalk along the east side.

Below outside of these windows is one of the interior courtyards. They are between the classroom winds.

This view is of those windows and the columns structurally supporting them from the courtyard level at the back of the school.

These columns carry the stone element and lead the eye to the center of the school, the commons.

If you sequence the photos walking in through the front door into the commons and out to the courtyard you will have a sense of the unity of the stone element in the design features. Very nice work.

Looking up Light in the Classrooms

On a recent visit I was pleased to see the new and contemporary light fixtures that we will have in the classrooms.

While most rooms will have ample "day lighting" (and some will be quite comfortable with just that) all rooms will have excellent overhead deflected fluorescent lighting.

When you walk into a classroom the daylight is first noticed. Even with the overheads off, there is enough light for mobility.

But it is that mobility that brightens the space! As you enter a room before you can even adjust or reach for a light switch, instantly the lights come on!

And why is that? All because of this motion sensor that detects movement in the classroom! As one of our energy savers, this motion sensor turns lights on or off depending on motion. After a designated setting if there is no motion, it dims the lights. Never again will lights be left on in an empty room!

Here is the light fixture as it looks when fully lit. It is a warm fluorescent and lights by reflected light and ambient light. You will notice the soft distribution and warm indoor light.

I say warm because that is so for indoor lighting. I was surprised to see the difference between the cool light (bluish on the lower left side) from outdoor day lighting in comparison the the warm light (rose on the upper right) of electrical light in this photo.

The lights are hung as linear pendants. They are not embedded in the ceiling like old school fluorescent. Hence they can reflect off the drop ceiling when added to give a more even and less glaring light.

This is a closer view of the fixture against the ceiling tile grid.

If you click on this image to enlarge it you will notice the grid and screen of perforated holes that make the light diffuse.

Most rooms have two or three day lighting windows and at least three rows of lights.

One thing new in these ceilings in addition to the lighting is the presence of sprinklers. We will have a sprinkler system that is school wide in our new school. Something safety we have never had at the old WHS. May we never need them!

Follow Me Down the Commons!

The commons is the open area that stretches from the cafeteria to the north end of the school.

To give you an idea of the length of the commons and hallway out to the bus pick up I have taken this photo. The view is from the serving line of the cafeteria. The light at the far end is the exit to the bus pick up. It is more than the length of a football field!

There are two main stairs and this is the North stair well down.

The next photo looks up to Level 3 in the same stair way.

(The connecting level of stairs have not been built in yet! :)

Following is the first video I have uploaded to the blog!

It is a walk down the length of the commons starting from the serving line in the cafeteria and ending at the exit at the north end of the hall.

I was walking at an adult pace, non stop, and it took one and a half minutes.

On the right you will see the Main Gymnasium pass by, followed by the main entrance, then the media center, and finally the chorus room and exit.

Click on the arrow to view the video, sorry about the audio, I had hoped to be able to dub in better commentary. I'll improve the script the next time we take this walk!

I hope you enjoy the stroll ~~~

Auditorium or Theater???

THEATER!!!!

This view is from the middle of the house. The stage is elevated and the floor of the stage is at the level the bucket lift is sitting. With a good "rake" or incline to the seating, this stage should be very visible to the audience.
A glance to the left of house shows the height of the interior wall and arched ceiling. Acoustic clouds will be hung to create good acoustics within the theater. To the left of this photo is the front of the school, the east side.
This image is taken from the stage floor looking out over the house toward the balcony. We have a two tiered balcony which will seat about 150 people.
This photo was taken straight forward from center stage looking at the balcony. The white construction hats at the bottom of frame are on people standing in the center of the theater.

The corners of the balcony are curved to echo the curve in the roof. This will be a showcase feature in our new school and we look forward to sharing it with our community. Wonder what Ms. Miller and Mr. Pope will offer for our first Spring show in 2011? What ever they choose to perform, it will be spectacular!