Room: D135-136

Audience: Architects and District Administration Personnel

Call to Action: Fully commit to a “team of rivals” when generating a Master Plan. Create a committee of people with passion, and bring a diversity of viewpoints and stakeholders to the table. Actively work to keep these people engaged in support of the implementation of the Master Plan.

• Educators and Architects are not trained politicians. Don’t wait until you need votes to begin messaging. Start now fostering good relationships and a culture of trust and transparency with the community, school board, District faculty, staff, and students.
• Treat the Master Plan and estimates as living documents. Revisit programming and estimates at the beginning of the implementation of each project of the Master Plan to ensure that the scope of each project remains relevant to the evolving needs of the District, and to ensure that the budget is sufficient to meet the District’s needs.

Abstract: Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) is a 3,400-student single building school district based in the rich historic setting of Oak Park, Illinois. OPRF High School is set on an urban campus and was built in phases from 1907 through 1967. Until work began on the IMAGINE OPRF Master Plan projects no significant renovations to the school had been undertaken since 1967, and significant work was required for the existing building to meet the current District needs and vision. The Oak Park community, and OPRF are passionately focused on being leaders in support of equity and sustainability. The work being done at the school as part of the IMAGINE Master Plan is designed to honor the rich history of OPRF while transforming it to support the District’s educational, equity, and sustainability vision. In order to get to the point of implementation of the Master Plan there has been a long path of community engagement, relationship building, needs assessment, and funding to navigate. This process has also required the District to look holistically at their 10-Year-Plan and Sustainability Goals in conjunction with the IMAGINE Master Plan. Lynn Kamenitsa is an Oak Park community member and was one of the leaders of the IMAGINE team. She will speak to the formation of the IMAGINE team, the development of the District’s five project Master Plan, and how the team became a passionate community advocacy group in support of the implementation and funding of IMAGINE OPRF. Greg Johnson and Tony Arbogast of OPRF will speak to the journey to fund IMAGINE OPRF, the importance of the relationships the District had with the community, neighbors, and within the District itself, along with lessons learned in the journey so far. Alyson Sternquist with FGM Architects will speak to the work done to look holistically at the District’s 10 Year Plan work, meet the District’s sustainability goal of electrification of the urban campus, and the implementation of the IMAGINE OPRF Master Plan. The ongoing, active collaboration of all of these team members has been crucial to the successful implementation of IMAGINE OPRF.

Learning Objectives:

1. Develop a deeper understanding of the relationships and messaging required to implement a Master Plan.
2. Develop a deeper understanding of how to fund a Master Plan.
3. Develop a holistic approach to the prioritization and implementation of large Capital Projects, annual capital improvement work, and energy efficiency efforts.
4. Understand the options available for installing geothermal well fields on an urban campus.