CARIBOU, Maine – The superintendent of RSU 39 thinks the building committee made the right choice when they selected PDT Architects of Portland to work with during the eminent major building improvement project over the next few years.
Little known to Superintendent Susan White, Lyndon Keck, principal of the project with PDT Architects, thinks his company made the right decision in choosing to pursuing the Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm project.
“I think the goal for us, and we shared this with the (RSU) interview committee, it’s not our building. It’s the RSU’s building, and so what we design is going to be a reflection of who they are and what their aspirations are for how they want to educate their children,” Keck said.
Keck’s company has known about the RSU’s project for almost a year — it’s one of nearly 12 projects his company took note of. Keck and his coworkers started talking to people who knew about the character of RSU39’s project, and once they learned about Aroostook County, its people and its unique challenges, RSU 39’s project became one that PDT Architects wanted to be a part of.
“A lot of it is about fit,” explained PDTA Project Manager Abigail Hopkins Cram. One of the main reasons she wanted to work with the RSU was its community.
Hopkins Cram couldn’t quite put her finger on why, per se, but there’s something about the area that takes her back to the years she spent living in Montana.
“There’s something about the community fabric and the richness of the culture and the people,” she explained. “I guess it’s exemplified a lot in how willing people are to contribute to do things like snowplow the tennis courts, and if there isn’t snow someone finds a way to make snow and puts it on the (cross-county ski) course,” she said, adding that things like that simply don’t happen in a lot of communities.
“They don’t rally together to the same degree, ”Hopkins Cram added.
From an architect and design standpoint, the RSU 39’s project brings forth unique challenges that PDTA Architect and Principal In Charge Alan Kuniholm is excited about exploring.
“He’s a community that’s five hours north of Portland, and you’re a different zone up here,” he acknowledged, highlighting that cold weather is an architectural challenge.
“We did research on this RSU and on Caribou, and collectively we all found things that we liked about this community, this project and the challenge in the project,” Keck said.
That “right fit” between architects, RSU and community is paramount when it comes to making sure the major project meets the educational and communal needs of the area – and that fit was apparent last Thursday – after a packed day of meetings, the three spent early evening on the famed cross country ski trails of Caribou they’d heard so much about.
Prior to their woodsy ski-trail tour, the PDTA team met with teachers and staff at CPAC to discuss their educational needs in either a new building or a total renovation of an existing building — foreseen needs, and those that might come 50 years down the road.
Creating a new educational and community space takes time — Keck estimated close to five years until this project is finished — but the project is approaching a point where community engagement will be pursued.
Keck emphasized that they want community engagement from all three RSU 39 communities — Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm.
“They really have a role to participate here, and we will go to each of the three communities and listen to their aspirations and their concerns about the project,” Keck said.
Even though it hasn’t been determined whether the project will include a new building or renovations/repairs, Keck was confident in stating that any work will be major.
“If it is a renovation project, it won’t be a paint and paper,” he clarified. “It will be strip and gut project, we’ll take it right down to the bones.”
The region will most likely know whether it’s renovations or a new building around September of this year. PDTA anticipates having the design prepared by spring of 2016, and the project’s price tag will be available late summer of 2016, along with impact to taxpayers.
In 18 to 24 months, Keck is hoping to present a project to the RSU 39 for a referendum.
“Whatever is proposed for the location of the school, the design of the school and the cost of the school and the impact on the taxpayers, which will all be presented in a referendum question. The work we have right now is to get us to that referendum date,” he explained.
The state has a very linear process of 21 steps from project announcement to completion, and Keck said that each step has more and more information to share.
“I know that’s a goal of Susan’s, to keep people informed every step of the way,” Keck added.
Editor’s note: A ‘Building Our Future’ café, similar to one conducted in 2012 that brought students, teachers, parents and community members together to formulate a solid idea of what local education should look like, will be held for staff and community on Saturday, May 2; additional information will be available closer to the event.
