From Obsolete to State of the Art
'Honoring the Past and Celebrating the Future' in the Restoration of 3 Schools

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hardy Middle School in Northwest Washington will reopen next week with a much larger library after a two-year renovation project. After being mothballed six years ago, Phelps High School in Northeast will relaunch with an updated focus on the construction trades. And John Philip Sousa Middle School in Southeast will have a brighter building that incorporates its historic role in the civil rights movement.

School construction officials say the renovations are a harbinger of the work that will be done in the next few years to turn dilapidated buildings across the city into state-of-the-art campuses. The three projects will serve as blueprints for the city's $2.3 billion modernization plan, which is to be released next month and will guide the renovation of more than 100 schools.

The changes at Sousa, which cost $34.5 million, are striking. Pre-construction photos show dimly lighted hallways with old floor tiles and classrooms with dingy walls and traditional chalkboards and desks. Students will be greeted with a bright main corridor featuring a dramatic curved staircase and yellow accent stripes on the white ceiling. Classrooms, painted in colors such as salmon, will be equipped with new computers, whiteboards and, in some cases, black tables instead of desks.

The school, at 3650 Ely Pl. SE, also was designed to be energy-efficient, with sensor lights in corridors and classrooms that shut off when no one is present.

"I'm ecstatic" about moving into a refurbished building, said newly hired Sousa Principal Dwan Jordon, who previously worked in Prince George's County schools. "I'm more excited for the community."

Sousa's role in the civil rights movement began in fall 1950, when the D.C. school system denied a request by a group of black children to enroll in the all-white school. The school system's rejection of the students sparked the Bolling v. Sharpe case, which led to the landmark Supreme Court decision -- incorporated into the Brown v. Board of Education ruling -- that struck down "separate-but-equal" schools.

Fifty-eight years later, Sousa officials are planning to incorporate that history into the school.

"Sousa is a historic building. I want to make sure that's represented in the school," Jordon said, adding that parents plan to establish a museum with photos and other artifacts from the Supreme Court case.

"Twenty years ago, Sousa was a performing arts school," he said, adding that Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee "wants to do that again next year, adding dance, visual arts, creative writing and band."

The challenge for construction officials was to preserve the historic character of the aging building while bringing them into the 21st century. The work included restoring details such as wainscot and ornamental ceilings while replacing ventilation systems, plumbing and wiring and making the schools accessible to the disabled.

The aim is to rehabilitate buildings rather than start from scratch, an approach that officials said will save time and money.

"We're honoring the past and celebrating the future," said Paul Bradshaw, the architect for Sousa.

Allen Y. Lew, executive director of the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, said the upgrades have made the schools better than when they originally opened. "The quality is raised, the bar is raised," he said. Lew oversaw construction of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and Nationals Park.

Hardy Middle School, at 1819 35th St. NW in Georgetown, began nearby 80 years ago as an elementary school. It moved to its current location, a former junior high, and was converted into a middle school in 1974, a few years before President Jimmy Carter's daughter, Amy, enrolled there.

Patrick Pope, who has been Hardy's principal for 10 years, said the building deteriorated from lack of maintenance. The school, he said, had electrical and plumbing problems and leaks from the roof that sometimes flooded the gym. It also lacked air conditioning. "It was not a positive environment at all," he said.

Renovations began in December 2005. The original plan was for students to remain in the building during construction. But work crews cut phone and electrical lines as well as pipes, nearly causing a flood. After that, Pope said, he lobbied to move out of the building. The school was relocated to the Hamilton Center, a vacant special education school in Northeast.

After the move, enrollment dropped from 420 to 320. In October, on his first day on the job, Lew fired the contractors, blaming them for putting the project a year behind schedule and $12 million over budget.

The new contractors have restored the historic vestibule and ornamental plaster on the walls in the corridors. The $48.5 million project also included installing elevators, enlarging the gym, adding science and art labs and increasing the library by 30 percent.

"I've told everyone, if you were in the old building, when you enter the new building you won't recognize where you are," Pope said, adding that he expects the enrollment to reach its 550 capacity by next year. "It's going to be a spectacular building."

Closed in 2002, Phelps High School, at 704 26th St. NE, has been resurrected with a $63.8 million renovation. Phelps opened in the 1930s as a vocational education school for black students, offering training in upholstery, plumbing, masonry, horticulture and other trades. In its new incarnation, the school will offer training in the construction trades as well as a college preparatory program focusing on architecture.

"I felt playing with dirt was the dumbest thing. But I learned if all else failed, I could go into landscaping," said D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who took horticulture classes at Phelps in the 1980s.

"If you don't go to college, you should graduate with a skill," said Brown, who introduced legislation that financed the school's renovation, aimed at preparing young people for jobs in the construction industry.

Work includes dramatic archways and atria and a greenhouse with computer-controlled watering systems and shades. The building also uses wind turbines for power, cisterns to collect rainwater and solar panels to reheat water. It has exposed pipes, beams and electrical systems as educational tools to teach students how the school was constructed.

"The guts of the building are supposed to show you, instead of hide from you, what is going on in the building," said Edwin R. Schmidt, one of the architects.