please forward to interested members of the shared use committee....
i'm looking at a copy of the november '95 issue of american school and
university magazine. there is an award for the renovation of puyallup
high school in puyallup, washington.
a few particulars....
year originally constructed... 1910
capacity.... 1450 students
area.... 118,418 sf
sf/student.... 82sf
cost of renovation.... 11.8 million
cost per sf.... (essentially) $100/sf
as a benchmark, the same issue also highlights a new, from ground up,
high school (westview) in beaverton school district (portland, oregon)
for 2000 students...
capacity... 2000 students
area... 257,000 sf
area/student... 129 sf
cost... $22 million
cost/sf... $86/sf
this appears to indicate that you can by more sf/student with less dollars
in new construction than renovation. (i say "appears" because there
could be a ton of parameters and circumstances which could skew
either one of these examples from norm.)
but it does tend to back up an purely speculative thought i had a few
months ago when i saw some e-mail flying around regarding renovation
of the existing facility vs a new high school. at the time, there were
some assertions (i noticed a feeling that) a new high school would be
much more expensive than renovating the existing facility. i would be
very cautious of making such an assumption without a hard, careful
study of program and cost.
it has been my experience that renovation... especially of a historic
structure... is easily as much, and quite possibly more expensive than,
new construction. usually, the "extra costs in renovation comes in all
the labor costs which result from "hand work," "piece work," and
carefully working in and around existing structure, elements, etc.
..ray