Brookings architects propose hybrid science labs, bathroom upgrades and new collaborative space at high school

Coop Architecture presented a plan to renovate science classrooms at Brookings High School and asked the Brookings School District 05-1 board to authorize design-bid steps leading to construction next summer. Jason Khan, an architect with Coop Architecture, said the district’s science rooms—original to the 1960s building—need extensive mechanical, electrical and plumbing work and offered a hybrid classroom design to increase lab and lecture flexibility.

The presentation centered on a version of “Option C,” which Khan described as the plan that "had the most positive comments back and was the direction that it seemed like everyone wanted to go." The concept would remove existing casework and finishes, reconfigure walls to enlarge four classrooms to roughly 1,200 square feet each, relocate restroom facilities to one side of the corridor to gain classroom space, and create a…