The Norfolk School Board and City Council are expected to vote this month on an interim agreement with developers for a partial design of the new Maury High School.
Heartland Construction, Work Program Architects and VMDO Architects were part of the team that submitted a proposal in 2022 to build a new school while preserving the historic building. Representatives from those firms met with the Maury community last month to present initial plans. About 150 people attended.
Robert Hudson, vice president of project management for Heartland, said the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive.”
Hudson said the group presented early conceptual site layout drawings. If the interim agreements are approved, the team will proceed with 35% of the design work before presenting plans to the board.
More community engagement meetings are planned for the fall and spring to present designs including the exterior and interior of the school. If the city and School Board approve, design work could be completed by the end of 2025. The new school could open by fall 2028.
The proposal submitted by the group is a PPEA or a Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act plan. It is an alternative procurement tool for big public projects. Mel Price with WPA said one of the benefits of a PPEA is that it can cut project time. She said inflation is causing costs to increase about 12% a year and shortening the timeline can save money.
Early plans call for the school to be four stories, like the current Maury. Wyck Knox with VMDO said building vertically will allow for a “smaller footprint.”
“A small, compact footprint is what makes the solution work because the site is only so big,” he said.
The current idea is to place the majority of core classrooms on the upper floors with gyms, cafeterias and other spaces that need higher ceilings on the lower floors. Public spaces such as multipurpose rooms that could be used after school or by outside groups would also be planned for lower floors.
When the proposal was originally made there was talk of turning the historic Maury building into housing, but that decision has not been finalized. The city and school division will decide on the use of the building later in the process.
Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com
