By Gretchen Webster

Design plans for the new Long Lots Elementary School got the first nod of approval from the town’s Architectural Review Board (ARB) Tuesday evening.

While some ARB members made suggestions for visual improvements in the school’s proposed design, the architectural plans passed the board’s review unanimously.

“These are small issues that I think are resolvable. It’s important for us to support this project,” ARB Chairman Ward French said. “This is a professional job. We’re 95% there.”

The ARB decided not to make their approval conditional despite their concerns about some points of the design, however, because of a time crunch in the state funding approval process that apparently took town officials by surprise this week.

Westport Finance Director Gary Conrad and Assistant Town Attorney Elieen Lavigne Flug told Westport Journal Wednesday that a merger of state departments suddenly changed the funding deadline from October to June 30. In addition, a requirement in the town charter requires an automatic two-week waiting period for any expenditure over $500,000 to allow an opportunity for a public referendum to be called.

Meanwhile, in an example of mixed communications surrounding the issue, Long Lots Building Committee Chairman Jay Keenan told members of two Representative Town Meeting committees Wednesday evening that the new funding deadline “has nothing to do with the state changing things.”

This new deadline apparently took members of the ARB, as well as many other members of town boards by surprise, resulting in a rush to hurry the school building plans through required approvals before June 16, some four months earlier than expected.

The Board of Finance is scheduled to consider approval of an appropriation of $93,000,000 for the Long Lots School project on June 5. The Planning and Zoning Commission must also meet to issue a new 8-24 land use report on the school project, because the Westport Community Gardens that had been included in the original school rebuilding plan were removed from the project by First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker on May 14.

The full RTM must also approve the school project by June 16 before a request for funds to build the school is sent to the state by the June 30 deadline.

Security, drainage and space efficiency key to school design

Several members of the ARB had issues with three facades of the school each having a different design, and said that three gables on the front of the school were unnecessary. There were also some comments about a multicolored window that looked like a kaleidoscope, according to ARB member Jackie Richardson, and other suggestions that different materials or colors be used in different parts of the school building.

“We have to have trust in the architect,” who has done a good job designing this school project and other projects she has seen in the past, said ARB member Vesna Herman.

The architect making the presentation, Marissa Dionne Mead of Svigals+ Partners in New Haven, said the design project has been complicated because the existing school must remain in place during the construction of the new school.

Also, the design of the sides of the building facing neighbors had to take their views into account, she said, and special features to help minimize flooding on the property were necessary. Those include a second water retention pond in the wooded area behind the school, underground drainage pipes on both sides of the property, and additional structures in the parking lot islands to trap excess water.

The new building will include the Stepping Stones Preschool as well as the elementary school for kindergarten through fifth grade. The preschool is on the first floor, where kindergarten and first grades classrooms are also located, with second through fifth grades on the floor above.

The school is designed so that – for security reasons – the parts of the school used for after-school care, sports, or other events outside of school hours can be closed off from the rest of the school.

Several of the features of the school that were questioned by ARB members were necessary for security purposes or for educational reasons, Mead said.

For instance, ARB member Jake Watkins thought the entry area at the front of the school which has been designed as a bridge, could be wider. But it is important, Mead said, that anyone approaching the school can be seen clearly as they come toward the front door, requiring a narrower, rather than a wide front entrance.

When it was recommended that three gables on the front of the school be removed for visual reasons, the architect said that the gables and some other architectural features in the school, were necessary to make some classrooms larger than an average classroom, including art, music and kindergarten classrooms that require more space.

One of the features of the design that was popular with the ARB was a central courtyard with trees and natural plantings. The courtyard design included natural materials such as wood and stone, and provided outside seating for students.

“The courtyard is a jewel,” commented ARB member David Halpern.

By the end of the meeting, all the ARB members had positive comments about the school plan.

“The concept approach to the project is very successful. It is not boring, it is appropriate for the age of the children,” Herman said.

“I think overall it is successful,” French agreed.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.

 Westport Journal Executive Editor John Palmer and Journal reporter Kerri Williams contributed to this report.