South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Superintendent presents latest plans for auditorium to Facilities Committee

Knost pleased with progress of plans for new auditorium

The latest incarnation of the Mehlville School District’s auditorium has slightly decreased in size, is not expected to connect to Mehlville Senior High School and will not have an orchestra pit.

When Superintendent Eric Knost presented the most recent update on the auditorium project to the district’s Facilities Committee last week, he said the decrease in square footage — from roughly 23,416 square feet to about 20,393 square feet — is due to the change in location.

The new auditorium currently is expected to be built at the south end of the Mehlville Senior High campus.

“It’s a nice piece to be sitting out front, and as much as I liked what we developed at the other site too (at the north end of the campus), the reality of it is the main entrance was around back … This kind of makes it a focal point upfront,” Knost said.

Don Hussman, of Dickinson Hussman Architects, the district’s architects, told the Call the south-end location is “far superior” from a visibility standpoint, lends itself to the academic program and has better parking amenities.

“From an architectural standpoint, it’s probably in the best location,” he said.

The first proposal was to house the auditorium in a renovated Witzel Alt Center, previously the Witzel Learning Center, which was rejected because a large part of the original building would be demolished to create the auditorium.

The second proposal put the auditorium behind the Administration Building at the north end of the Mehlville Senior High campus.

Re-routing sewer and utility lines presented issues at that location.

Connecting to Mehlville High

The latest budget — $5,998,005, which includes 10 percent contingency — does not include connecting the auditorium to Mehlville Senior High, though a corridor is being considered as an alternate for the bidding process.

The estimate for the corridor is $113,832, according to the preliminary project budget that was revised May 14.

“The original idea, of course, that we first explored was over here at Witzel … and there was no connection at that time …,” Knost said. “I don’t know if I’d call (a corridor) a luxury, but it’s not a mandatory piece to make this function.”

If a corridor is not included in the final construction plan, Knost said the auditorium could include pre-construction for the addition in the future.

Hussman said pre-construction would consist of incorporating a knockout panel in the wall of the auditorium.

Including the knockout panel during the initial construction does not have much of an impact on cost, according to Hussman.

Orchestra pit

Knost said to design the auditorium with an orchestra pit would have been “a significant amount of money.”

“It was well over $200,000. I talked to the performing arts directors and that was not in their minds a deal breaker at all,” Knost said. “Something like, whereas, getting rid of the catwalk … or reducing seats, those things are deal breakers in their minds.”

Hussman told the Call Knost’s estimate for additional cost is “a pretty good overall number” because including an orchestra pit increases the size of the stage, which increases the size of the building, along with other miscellaneous components.

When Knost inquired about including an orchestra pit as an alternate in the bidding process, he found that cannot be done without spending more money on engineering.

However, consultants suggested because the auditorium will be on an incline — and because the seats will be removable — front row seating could be removed, allowing space for an orchestra in front of the stage.

Project schedule

The project currently is in the design development stage, which was expected to take six weeks. Knost said the only item keeping the project in that phase is the official soil report.

If the soil report does not indicate any changes, which the district does not believe it will, DHA feel they will be able to move to the next stage of submission estimate of probable construction cost with no changes to the budget, according to Knost.

“They (the architects) don’t anticipate any significant changes to (the budget) by June 7. So the reality of it is, we’re kind of in the process of owner review (of design development),” Knost said, “and then many aspects of what (DHA is) doing, they’re already in the construction document phase, which is listed there as (June 18 through Aug. 10).”

Knost said his hope is the district might review final construction costs near the end of July, rather than Aug. 13, as projected on the district’s most recent project schedule.

“I’m just happy that at least for now, we’re meeting this schedule as suggested and actually in front of it to some degree,” he said.

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