The Princeton Regional School District Board of Education hosted a public discussion on the future of its Valley Road building on Wednesday, October 18, in the John Witherspoon Middle School cafeteria.
The public heard from representatives of KSS Architects, LLP, the Princeton firm appointed by the district in June to analyze current and potential uses for the building located on an approximately 9-acre site at the corner of Valley Road and Witherspoon Street, opposite the KSS-designed township municipal building.
The open forum was well-attended by members of the school district's administration and by members of the local community, including tenants of the 73,000-square-foot building as well as neighbors and interested businesses.
Superintendent Judith A.Wilson said that ideas from the community are being sought as part of a brainstorming process toward forming plans that are not yet well-defined.
Using photographs of interiors and exteriors as well as an overhead view of the neighborhood that positioned the site in the context of the rest of the community, KSS Partner Edmund Klimek and KSS project manager Merillee Meacock described the poor condition of the building — parts of which date back to 1910 — and noted its prominent position at the bottom of the Witherspoon corridor from Nassau Street and the University, and between the Princeton Shopping Center and the township municipal building. The site's zoning was described as residential abutting a mixed-use zoned area.
While the site includes five acres of playing fields, most of the discussion focused on the building.
The forum discussed the relative merits of renovations to the existing building — thought to be prohibitively costly — against the costs and benefits of tearing it down and building a new structure.
The building, which was once occupied by the township's municipal offices, currently houses administrative offices for the district, as well as Princeton's adolescent counseling center Corner House, Princeton Community Television, and the YWCA Princeton Child Care Center,
Among those who attended the forum was Judy Hutton, CEO of YWCA of Princeton, which runs the YWCA Princeton Child Care Center, a nursery school and child-care facility with special emphasis on developing English language and social skills. The center serves 50 children in the community.
"The center occupies several rooms on the second floor, and has been going strong for more than 10 years," said Mr. Hutton. "It is well respected by the district because our kids are able to enter kindergarten in the Princeton Regional Schools system on a par with their peers," she said. "There was lot of support for keeping the child care center there."
In addition, according to Ms. Hutton, there was a great deal of sentiment for maintaining the building for community service programs and for incorporating programs for seniors.
"The meeting was wonderful," she commented afterwards. "This was a genuine attempt on the part of the board to solicit input from the community."
"KSS gave us the facts, the district gave assurances that the playing fields would not be touched, and it was a very interesting open debate with people presenting a variety of ideas," she said. "There was also a lot of support for keeping Corner House in the building."
Corner House Board member and former Princeton Township Mayor Jim Floyd also attended. In a phone interview on Monday, October 23, he affirmed his view that the building be retained for a variety of community uses, such as Corner House and other human services agencies.
He questioned the rationale for selling a building simply because it is old. He said that he had "seen the school board sell buildings such as the Nassau Street and Quarry Street Schools, both of which are still in use."
Mr. Floyd also questioned the district's predictions with respect to school enrollment. "There's no telling what the numbers of children will be," he said. "This is not an easy thing to predict and there could be room for miscalculation."
Still, he believes that these are the initial stages of planning and looks forward to attending the next go round.
While some expressed the view that the building should be sold off, others raised concerns that the building should not be renovated to a standard over and above what is necessary. Citing the municipal building as much more elegant than it need be for its purpose, they suggested that the same thing should be avoided with Valley Road.
Several voiced the view that the district consider the future of 25 Valley Road in conjunction with other projects proposed in Princeton, such as the redevelopment of the University Medical Center at Princeton site, in order to prevent redundancies.
There were suggestions that part of the new facility might serve as a homeless shelter or as transitional housing.
The district's stated goals in commissioning KSS for the study were to assess low-cost improvements that might be made and consider ways the vacant space in the building might be used to generate revenue.
According to its "Long Range Facilities Plan 2005-2010," the rehabilitation of the Valley Road building could cost in the region of $7.5 million and be scheduled for completion in 2009.
Reminding the forum that the plans are at best preliminary, Ms Wilson commented: "This is an inch in the process, this is just the start."