SHEBOYGAN – Renderings for Farnsworth and Urban middle school rebuilds were unveiled at community information sessions June 3.
Sheboygan Area School District and Bray Architects presented preliminary designs and site plans for both aging middle schools, as the district embarks on the rebuilding and remodeling projects part of the $121 million referendum that passed in November 2024. These info sessions followed a presentation to the SASD Board of Education May 27.
Nate Considine, architect with Bray Architects, said the schools will offer the same amenities after the upgrades. The projects would increase capacity to 600 students with about 60 to 70 staff members. Farnsworth has around 450 students, and Urban has around 570 students, according to district enrollment data taken at the beginning of the second semester for the 2024-2025 school year.
Bray Architects expects to have plans finalized by January 2026. Construction, led by Quasius Construction and C.D. Smith, at both schools could begin by March 2026. It could wrap up at Farnsworth in March 2028 and at Urban by July 2028.
Farnsworth Middle School preliminary design keeps 1990s addition
Farnsworth Middle School, 1017 Union Ave., would keep its gym, fitness center and locker rooms built in the 1990s, which would undergo renovations and HVAC, electrical, plumbing and paint upgrades. The rest of the building is earmarked for rebuild, including the cafeteria, library, main office, secure lobby and classrooms.
The design shows a tiered three-story building, oriented toward South 10th Street and moved closer to Ashland Avenue.
The first floor shows a main office, cafeteria, music suite, tech education space, athletic spaces and core subject classrooms. The library, mechanical spaces, special education spaces and classrooms for health, art and world languages would be on the second floor, and additional classrooms for English, family and consumer science would be on the third floor.
A metal medallion of a panther, the school’s mascot, would be displayed on the school’s exterior near the main entrance.
Urban Middle School would keep historic facade facing North Avenue
Preliminary plans show keeping the historic facade and various spaces across the three floors of Urban Middle School, 1126 North Ave. The gymnasium, fitness center, office, storage spaces and classrooms for special education, art, world language, math, and English would be remodeled and upgraded.
Rebuilt areas would include the cafeteria, music rooms, and classrooms for science, English and math across the three floors.
The rendering shows making ADA upgrades to the North Avenue entrance and moving the main entrance to face North 13th Street. Considine said the entrance, with brick, stone piers and patina coloring, is designed to fit with the historic building’s art deco architecture.
Urban would also have the school’s mascot, a patina knight, on the outside of the cafeteria.
Preliminary plans eliminated the auditorium. Considine said it’s becoming less common for middle schools in Wisconsin to have auditoriums, and if they do, they may have been old high schools.
He said there were pre-referendum discussions about revitalizing Urban’s auditorium, but it wasn’t feasible to keep it considering other community needs.
SASD Superintendent Jake Konrath added the auditorium is only used a few times a year, and it would’ve cost $15 million to include it in the upgrades.
“We said we’re not going to put one in at Urban, but we’re going to invest in the three that we have at North, South and Horace Mann,” Konrath said.
The SASD Board of Education approved about $392,000 worth of lighting upgrades across the three auditoriums April 22.
SASD is still finalizing traffic plans for parents and buses with city staff.
Considine said SASD is proposing buses would drop off and pick up at Farnsworth on Ashland Avenue, but they’re still working out details with the city to manage pedestrian crossing and parent drop-off/pick-up. The proposal has a driveway with curb cutouts on South 10th Street.
Parking lots are proposed on Union Avenue and near the gym on South 11th Street.
At Urban, the proposal has a looped parking lot off North 13th Street and additional parking on North 12th Street.
Traffic analyses at both sites were conducted by Cedarburg-based Traffic Analysis & Design, Inc., to inform the proposed parking lots and drop-off/pick-up areas.
Check out the site plans and renderings in the SASD Board of Education May 27 agenda at www.sheboygan.k12.wi.us/about/board-of-education. Stay up to date about the referendum and check for monthly updates at https://www.sheboygan.k12.wi.us/referendum.
Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan Area School District unveils preliminary designs for $121M middle school rebuilds
Reporting by Alex Garner, Sheboygan Press / Sheboygan Press
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