Architects Hope To Have School Design Presented By Next Month

Architects continue to finalize plans for a new school in southwest Cookeville.

Upland Design Group’s Kim Chamberlin said he hopes to present an official design before the school board meets with county commissioners next month.

“We are making progress on a plan. We’ve not been sitting waiting for word back on wetlands. We’re moving forward,” Chamberlin said. “We will try to get this to where in the next week or so we’ll be ready to come back and talk with Mr. Boyd and say, ‘Let’s sit down and have some more discussion and refine.’ We know you have a meeting coming up in January with the commission. Our goal would still be to have something ready to present.”

Chamberlin presented a two-wing, two-story building layout during Thursday night’s meeting. Last month, he indicated that the 45-acre property at Lee Seminary Road would accommodate a PreK-8 school.

“We can easily get somewhere between 150,000  to 180,000 square feet of building space on the property with athletic fields,” Chamberlin said. “We were looking at a baseball field and a softball field, and then what we’re showing would be a combination of a football and soccer field. From our standpoint, we think the property works in this regard and keeps us out of the most expensive property to develop.”

Chamberlin said the current plan would avoid all but one of the four identified wetlands on the 45-acre property.

“We have continued to look at the wetlands issues,” Chamebrlin said. “We’re still waiting on the Corps of Engineers to get out and give their final approval.”

The board of education meets with county commission in January.