press release

Poquoson chooses firm to design elementary school

VMDO Architects selected from more than 10 firms to design the city's first new school in 15 years

COPYRIGHT 2004 Daily Press

Byline: Beverly N. Williams

Oct. 12--POQUOSON, Va. -- VMDO Architects, the Charlottesville-based architectural firm that designed the new basketball arena at the University of Virginia, will help the Poquoson School Board map out its plans for a new elementary school.

The firm beat out more than 10 others for the contract to design the city's first new school in 15 years.

"We recognized very quickly that it was children first with this architect," said board member John Costulis during a work session Monday night where the board got some insight into the firm's plans for the new school.

"They will push us do the right thing for our children," he said. "They understand that this is more than just a school for us."

Costulis, who headed the school district's architect selection committee, said VMDO was chosen because of its experience working with small school districts like Poquoson and the firm's proposal showing that it could design a quality building at a fairly low cost.

"And that's important for school district's like ours that have tight budget constraints," he said.

The City Council voted in July to allocate $12 million for a new school to replace the old one built in the 1950s and which flooded during Hurricane Isabel.

Robert Moje, a founding principal in the firm, said Poquoson's education program would be critical in determining what kind of building will be best for the school system. "The building is an outgrowth of a need to teach children," Moje said.

Before VMDO can start on a design, however, school officials first must decide where they want to build the new school. Sites are being considered in and out of flood zone areas, including the property that houses the current elementary school, Costulis said.

The board's options to buy land large enough to accommodate a new school are limited, though, because much of Poquoson lies in a flood zone. And while there are concerns about building in such areas, Moje told board members that that alone shouldn't rule out any sites.

"You can't look at the project in isolation. You have to look at how it fits into the bigger piece of the complicated puzzle," he said. "You have to look at the educational aspect and the cost. For example, is building in a flood plain an educational opportunity?"

Once a site is selected, he said, construction would begin within a year, which means Poquoson elementary school students could be in a new school by September 2007.

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(c) 2004, Daily Press, Newport News, Va. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

VMDO Architects was founded in 1976 and is the youngest firm to receive the T. David Fitz-Gibbon Virginia Architecture Award, the most prestigious honor given by the Virginia Society of American Institute of Architects.

For further information, interview, and photography opportunities in reference to this project and VMDO Architects, please contact William Bishop at 434.296.5684, email at bishop@vmdo.com.