Greencastle-Antrim board views schematic designs for high school addition, field house and primary-school tweaks

EI Associates presented schematic designs to the Greencastle-Antrim School District board on Oct. 16, laying out plans that prioritize a high school addition, a new field house and a small primary-school addition.

Adam of EI Associates said the schematic design clusters academic spaces and athletics support: "priority number 1 being the high school, 2 being a new field house, and 3 being the primary school," and the core of the academic addition centers on "six new science classrooms" grouped by discipline with shared prep rooms. He said the band room shown in the schematic would be more than 50% larger than the current space and that the auxiliary gym is sized to seat about 1,250 on the bleachers, plus about 100 student seats on a small student section behind one hoop.

Designers also described athletics support spaces — multiple team rooms, two full-size indoor batting cages and storage and mechanical areas behind the bleachers — along with an expanded concourse that would link indoor and outdoor fields. On the site plan, EI Associates proposes widening the access drive to Leitersburg Street, a change that the firm said will require a PennDOT permit and work with the district's traffic engineer to review circulation and drop-off separations for middle- and high-school traffic.

Board members asked detailed questions about seating, circulation, accessibility and materials. One trustee raised heat concerns from north- and south-facing glass; the architect responded that the gym’s north-facing glass should limit solar gain and that the team will specify higher-performance glazing or frosting where needed. On locker-room design, architects said they are designing flexible team rooms and restroom fixtures to accommodate a range of uses.

The presentation included a preliminary parking approach: designers said they could add roughly 138 new parking spaces in the proposed site layout and re-stripe existing areas near the primary school to capture additional stalls. The team cautioned that stormwater management and use of green space remain schematic-phase issues to be refined during design development.

The board praised the responsiveness of the design team to feedback from coaches and teachers. "We've met with all the coaches from the different teams — every time they came back they were able to accommodate our requests," one member said. Adam said the district is at the end of schematic design and will move next into design development and later present updated budget estimates and more detailed drawings.

What’s next: EI Associates will continue into design development, begin the permitting conversation with PennDOT for the access drive, and return to the board with updated cost estimates and refined plans.