The new $28 million Northridge High School in Layton is on schedule and within budget, school district officials say. The high school on Hill Field Road will open in August.
Only two classes - sophomores and juniors drawn from Clearfield and Layton high schools - will occupy the school the first year. By the 1993-94 school year, the school will have its full complement of three grade levels.Principal Russ Poore said school district officials decided not to pull a senior class together out of Clearfield and Layton, not wishing to disrupt the final year and loyalties of the graduating classes.
The new Northridge facility is a four-pod design that steps down the slope of its 50-acre site, from the northernmost pod of vocationally oriented classrooms to the last pod that overlooks a 3,000-seat football stadium and practice field.
The four square pods feature a connecting central corridor and are marked by skylights, large windows, and an effusion of natural light in classrooms and commons areas.
Lead architect Steven Crane said its design is reminiscent of a town square.
The central commons area in the second pod houses administrative offices, the cafeteria, media center, student-operated supply store, and other service areas where students are expected to congregate.
The open, two-story commons has skylights that provide natural light not only to its users but for interior landscaping as well.
Poore said the area will have banners and furnishings to carry through the school's Northridge Knights identity.
"We're not, at this point, planning on an armored knight type of statue in the commons. Layton has its Lancer, and we don't want to do a similar thing out of deference to Layton," said Poore.
"But we're looking at perhaps an oversize bronze sword in a bronze boulder, perhaps on one of the pedestals in the corner, to carry through the idea of the Northridge Knights, of Excalibur, of the standard of excellence," according to the principal.
Cardinal and silver, the school colors, are repeated throughout the school's 344,000 square feet, on railings, banisters, window trim and even in the carpet.
School district superintendent Richard Kendell said some repainting was done after the school colors were chosen but for the most part the colors were worked into the school's fast-track construction process with little trouble.
The fast-track construction program, supervised by general contractor Hogan & Tingey, has been successful, Kendell said.
"Twenty months ago, this was nothing but a grassy field," said the superintendent. "This building will be up and operating by August 1992, in four more months. It just has to be."
The district has accepted the first, northernmost pod from the contractor and is using it for temporary administrative offices. The fourth pod, including a 102-foot by 200-foot gymnasium that will seat 3,000 spectators and has an indoor track on its second level, is nearly complete.
The auditorium pod, with its music rooms and adjunct facilities, is the unit farthest from completion, but school and construction officials are confident it will be ready for fall use.
Overall, the school is about 85 percent complete, Crane estimates.
By the new school's second year, with three full classes of sophomores, juniors and seniors, enrollment is expected to hit its 2,200 design capacity. By the next year, it could swell to 2,800 students, Poore said.
Emphasis in the school is on high-tech teaching methods, including extensive use of computers made possible by a grant of equipment from IBM valued at between $225,000 and $250,000, district officials said.
Each of the four pods can be closed off from the others, allowing after-hours use of the gym or auditorium and keeping the remainder of the building closed to outsiders.
Classrooms are equipped with motion sensors. Lights turn on automatically when the sensors detect a door being opened, and they shut off 10 minutes after the last detection.
The school, the district's seventh high school and first new school to be built since 1987, is the only one in the district with an air-conditioned auditorium. District officials expect the 1,600-seat auditorium will become a popular site for community activities and meetings.
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(Additional information)
Northridge High
Cost: $28 million
475 rooms
1,131 windows
460 doors
1,400 lockers
6,000 light fixtures
3,600 electrical sockets
90 miles of electrical conduit
284 miles of electrical wiring
10.5 acres of concrete
4.5 acres of carpeting
210,000 bricks
700,000 concrete blocks
380 sinks, drinking fountains and toilets
600 speakers