Architects Detail Hampton Street School Expansion

Mineola’s may soon look like it’s primary letter – ‘H’ – if architectural drawings come to fruition.

The Committee on Hampton Addition Project (CHAP) “challenged the architects to come up with some things,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said following a pair of meetings of the 15 member committee.

Architect Veronica Byrnes detailed the proposed expansion at last Thursday’s meeting of the Mineola Board of Education at the . The proposed 5,500 sq. ft. addition would be on the North side of the building, running along the sidewalk toward Colonial Avenue. The existing sidewalk would be made into a corridor that overlooks a new courtyard which would provide an educational space with curriculum based plantings.

The new enclosed space would include a janitor’s closet, handicapped accessible bathroom, a 750 sq. ft music rom, a 900 sq. ft. art room and two 150 sq. ft. resource rooms looking out to the field and an additional electrical closet. A glass wall would act as a partition between the library and computer room.

Byrnes said that the group found inspiration for an artwork after looking at various plastic ceiling sculptures and deciding to replicate the design with one made up of letters. Upon first glance the letters appear to be a jumble of alphabet letters but have the message “Reading is Fun” hidden inside.

Byrnes also produced computer generated images of the space specifically at 10 a.m. in the morning “and there’s actually no light fixtures on at all, it’s just the natural light coming into the space,” Byrnes said. The design would also incorporate energy efficient light fixtures.

The book stacks would be 42 inches in height, enabling the children to reach the books but also allow the librarian at the circulation desk to oversee the entire space.

The project’s base construction costs is $1.791 million, but allowing for a 10 percent contingency of $179,000 and 1.5 percent rate of inflation of $29,550, the total would be $1,999,550. The district will use to fund the construction on Hampton without a bond.  The move would make Hampton the pre-K through second grade school for children South of Jericho Turnpike. 

Concerns were raised by the committee about the windows and reducing costs by eliminating the vast majority.

“The difference in price was about $30,000, not including any windows you want to put in the brick,” Nagler said. “So, it’s kind of a wash in terms of the design aspect of it.”

The bid will be put out with no alternates, meaning that air conditioning is included since there is no “second shot” at construction. The district can refurnish the several times since they are combining the three libraries of , Hampton Street and Willis Avenue into one space.

“We do have the furniture to put in there,” Nagler said. “WIll it be kind of a hodgepodge of stuff, yes. If we can’t get it in the price of the bid we’re going to have to live with it with the understanding we’ll replace it later on, but in terms of the structure of the building, once we build it we’re not going to change our minds and put windows back or raise the ceiling or do something like that. We’re going to do it once, we’re going to do it this way.”

When asked if a media room would be relevant 5 years from now, the superintendent said that “I “hope it’s irrelevant five years from now,” but that “dedicating a space to technology, however we use that space could be very different,” suggesting that a space with beanbags and iPads could function the same as a “traditional setup” with structure.

“You spend the money building the space you want and furnishing it later because you have one change to la your foundation and to build.”

The architects estimate that it will take six weeks to complete the drawings and submit them to the state education department.