Minutes 04-16-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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a long history as a school, dating back to 1950. He said the Board of County Commissioners chose option 2. Jeff Thompson discussed the constraints of the facility. He said the building is 37,000 square feet, with low demand and high operational costs. He said that, fully operational, cost would be about $100,000 a year to heat and cool the building. The previous cost estimates, included in the CIP to do renovations, were in the range of$2-3 million dollars. He said there are restraints for water and sewer. The capacity is 2400 gallons per day and the Cedar Grove Project is taking 1000 gallons. This leaves a net capacity of 1400 gallons per day. He said Environmental Health has sized this capacity to be appropriate for a 10,000 square foot facility. The Board of County Commissioners chose to bring it down to a 10,000 square foot facility with re-adapted re-use that meets the needs of a community center. He said, with that information, a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process was started in November to find an architect, and a resident design advisory committee was formed. He said an architect was chosen out of Raleigh - MBAJ Architect. He said the qualifications of this firm included previous community center projects, experience with adaptive re-use design, and historically significant design experience. He said this project schedule allows for design in 2013-14 and construction in 2014-15, with a $2 million budget for construction and a $250,000 budget for design. Jeff Thompson said there is an asbestos abatement process tied in with the construction. He said that there were several discussions with the public and architects regarding the fact that some parts of the building would not have to be cooled or heated. He gave an example of a portico space tied back to Cedar Grove Park. He said that there have been discussions of a potential Emergency Services sub-station and a tower complex to service emergency services communication needs, as well as retail needs, such as wireless. He said the department is now prepared to bring the contract with MBAJ Architects forward for formal approval and to start the process of interfacing the public with the programming and design. He said this process will move into summer, and there would be a presentation of plans and ideas in the fall. He said the goal, after final approval from the Board, would be to take it to bid for construction at this time next year. Commissioner Pelissier said there were about 10 people who signed up in September to be on the design committee. She asked if more citizens would be allowed to be involved and Jeff Thompson said yes. Frank Clifton said the architectural firm is expecting a lot of community interaction, and the design committee meetings will be held up in that area. Commissioner Price asked if the architectural firm would be presenting a proposal that looks at the entire footprint of the building, or just the wings mentioned earlier. Jeff Thompson said those wings are being looked at in an un-conditioned space configuration which allows for outdoor usage. He noted that there are huge asbestos issues in many areas of the building, such as ceilings, window parts, HVAC and flooring. He said that the deconstruction gives some efficiency since the abatement can be done as part of it. Commissioner Price said she met with community members earlier this month, and had talked with staff. She said there is interest in preserving as much of the building as possible, and she requested that the architect bring back another option for preserving the whole building. She said it is apparent that the building can be considered a landmark for Orange County, and there is a wealth of history in the classrooms. She said, even if the unusable space has to be simply preserved for future construction at least that would preserve the history. Jeff Thompson said the firm can certainly do a holistic view of the facility with cost estimates.