Wayne Highlands Honesdale High School
Project Type: Education K-12
Location: Honesdale, PA
Services: Architecture, Engineering, Interior Design, Master Planning
Size: 23,000 SF
Highland Associates was commissioned to design 20,000 square feet of addition and renovation to the Honesdale High School for the Wayne Highlands School District. The project encompassed four areas of the high school; administration, circulation and security, band and music, and an underutilized library.
The renovation of the band / music wing included the addition of a 2,500 square foot band room. Other amenities included individual practice rooms, a choral room, a sheet music library, instrument storage, uniform storage, a keyboarding lab, and faculty offices.
The renovated library brought a formerly uninspiring space into the modern ages with the addition of collaboration spaces, soft seating, a classroom mezzanine, increased daylight, and updated technology.
The office renovation reorganized flow in a space that had a large population of student traffic mixing with faculty and staff. The renovation was kept within the existing construction and contains administration space, staff mailboxes, guidance offices, and conference space.
The final component of the renovation addressed two growing concerns in today’s schools; security and accessibility. It was the intent of the project to completely segregate visitor traffic from the student traffic. This was accomplished by creating distinctly separate entrance points/vestibules for each group. Visitors must enter through the main office via a secure vestibule and can only enter student traffic if escorted. An addition was designed that contains a ramp system to allow equal access to the elevated portions of the school in place of a lift system. This addition also allows for secure after-hours access to the auditorium and gymnasium, while keeping the other areas of the school locked and secured.
The project was quite the transformation. Prior to the renovation, it was difficult to distinguish between the main entrance of the school and a secondary entrance. The goal was to affirm the school’s identity while projecting the image of a state-of-the-art institution.
The plaza at the main entrance was designed to be a place of collaboration, interaction, and student activity that could serve as a break-out space for the gymnasium and the auditorium. Completed in 2016, the project had a construction value of $5.8 million.
