Students entering Oak Park and River Forest High School for the first day of school Aug. 16 will experience a new welcome center and student commons, two big renovations that made up a portion of the first part of a larger project.
Project 1, which cost $36.6 million, is part of the school’s Imagine OPRF project and also includes work on the school’s south cafeteria and student resource center, which are expected to finish by January 2022. Other portions of Project 1 will continue through August 2023, according to OPRF spokesperson Jackie McGoey.
In all, OPRF’s Imagine OPRF project will include five phases and will take 10 years to complete. It aims to bring the school up to current needs.
Additionally, each phase will require separate board approval. Thus far, Project 1 is the only one approved and underway, McGoey said.
The district has hired FGM Architects and Pepper Construction Company to do the work.
The welcome center, located just inside the school’s main entrance, is now compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and includes a new waiting area, front desk and four-panel video walls, McGoey said. It also includes the student commons, formerly known as the student center, which has seats and open space for students to gather.
A big feature in the student commons will be The Book of Learning, a 10-foot by-12-foot limestone sculpture that was made out of the old building facade and has been in storage since the mid 1960s, when the school’s Ontario Street entrance was removed, McGoey said.
The sculpture, which weighs five tons, will be encased in glass for protection. Additionally, a new staircase in the student commons will lead to an expanded balcony, another place students can relax, study or eat lunch.
As work continues on Project 1, OPRF is expected to have eight all-gender bathrooms completed by August, as well as renovations of 16 of the 76 total classrooms. Renovation work in the classrooms include new doors, flooring and ventilation systems.
For more information on Imagine OPRF, visit the school website at www.oprfhs.org/about/facilities-master-plan.
