For four and a half hours on Saturday, March 26, about 40 men and women who could have been enjoying the breezy spring weekend gathered at the Boynton Beach library to give their city a brighter future in sync with its past.
On paper, they were “The Boynton Beach Historic High School Redevelopment Project Public Planning Workshop & Design Charette.”
In fact, they were democracy in action.
Youngish, older and in-between, they would conjure ways to make a relic from the 20th century vital in the 21st.
Just across Ocean Avenue that morning, the former Old Mangrove High School, built in 1927, empty since 1997, waited silently for their wisdom.
To provide a bit of guidance, they had Kevin Greiner of the IBI Group, the project’s design consultant, and Rick Gonzalez of REG Inc., its architects.
They were also assisted by complimentary bagels and cream cheese, coffee, orange juice and a deli lunch.
City staff was not invited, on purpose. Today was for the public to be heard.
“Now, this is not a debate,” Greiner told them, “and it’s not about politics. We want to be open and candid, but not contentious. And every idea is a good idea today.”
Let the brainstorming begin.
At individual tables, six groups of residents armed with big sheets of drawing paper and a large aerial photo of the site started listing potential uses for the school’s 28,000 square feet.
At one table, Robyn Lorenz’s felt pen scribbled ideas as fast as they came: A youth center, a stage theater, a horticultural society or civic center. A dance hall or police station, cooking school or boat-building shop.
When Greiner called time, they’d tallied 27 suggestions. All from only one of six teams.
Now they shaped those ideas into themed packages, mixing and matching the proposals that seemed to harmonize: A cultural center, a jobs training site, a civic center, retail space, a youth-oriented center.
They listed the benefits of each idea, and the prospects for revenue. Common themes emerged quickly. Retail space on the first floor could help pay for cultural and recreational offerings on the second. How about a nautical theme, linking the school to the marina at the other end of the avenue? What about grants and naming rights?
Finally, after 3½ hours of solid work, each team rose to present its conclusions, and each was enthusiastically applauded.
With slight variations, a casual observer could not miss a common pattern, echoing the results of an online survey conducted earlier.
The groups seemed to favor a public/private blend of leased retail space on the first floor and cultural offerings on the second.
“We’ve cast a very wide net today,” Gonzalez said. “Now we’ll take those ideas, narrow them down to six really good ideas and develop two options with design and cost.” Those plans will be presented to the City Commission at its April 19 meeting.
“Hopefully, we can get the green light this summer to go forward,” Gonzalez added.
City Commissioner Bill Orlove was equally optimistic.
“We now have a City Commission all of whom support this renovation,” he said, “and I know we can do something really special now that we have full city support.”
Both the results of the online survey and the charette’s proposals will be post on the city’s website at
www.boynton-beach.org.
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