Murphy – After hearing presentations from six firms in its regular meeting on Sept. 9, the Cherokee County Board of Education has selected an architect for the planned consolidated high school.
In a short special called meeting on Sept. 15, the board voted to select LS3P/PFA Architects for the project. The Charlotte-based company is already working with the district on its new School of Innovation.
LS3P/PFA is two separate firms partnering on projects. Despite saying the firm would work with the school district to the best of its abilities during its Sept. 9 presentation, LS3P Principal and K-12 Practice Leader Paul Boney said staying within the district’s $40 million budget could be difficult with both a school building and a stadium included in the project.
“No matter who we select, I was very excited. I thought every single one of them had a lot of great points and were very qualified,” Superintendent Jeana Conley said.
Board member Jeff Tatham said he felt like every firm had good ideas, but he was supporting LS3P/PFA based on the district’s experience working with the firm.
“It’s hard to argue with LS3P and PFA,” Tatham said. “The School of Innovation project is going very well, and we have that expertise on the site and the programming, and also the extensive knowledge of our needs that LS3P has from the study they did for us a few years back.”
Board scribe Joe Wood also spoke in support of LS3P/PFA, saying Tatham “took the words right out of my mouth.” However, he was still concerned about financial aspects of the project.
“We were fortunate to have several qualified architects,” Wood said. “I’m still concerned about funding on this project, how that looks.”
Board member Keesha Curtis said she went back and forth between LS3P/PFA and Asheville-based Novus Architects.
“Just looking in that three-ring binder, they were the ones that caught my attention first, but all of them presented very good information to be given to us,” Curtis said.
In an interview after the presentations, Conley said district officials would soon meet with the firm to determine a timeframe.
“They will give us a timeline and a basic structure of all the different parts of this, and tell us how that’s going to look,” Conley said. “We kind of don’t know ourselves a this second.”
Conley also spoke to the district’s relationship with LS3P/PFA over the years.
“I do think that already having an existing business relationship with them and having worked with them already kind of gives us a head start,” she said. “They know our property. They’ve spent a lot of time here.”
The planned site for the new consolidated high school is next to the School of Innovation, adjacent to Tri-County Community College in Peachtree. High school students from Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Murphy will attend the school upon completion.
In addition to LS3p/PFA and Novus the firms who presented to the board included Boomerang Design, MPS Architecture, Cope Architecture and SGA/Narmour Wright Design.