Here’s a first look at the design for the new Robert Smalls International Academy
The new Robert Smalls International Academy will have new ball fields, efficient car rider lines and outdoor pavilions — and it’ll have plenty of tributes to the school’s famous namesake, according to school officials.
Representatives from architecture firm LS3P and construction firm JE Dunn Associates presented the plans to rebuild the school and tear down the old campus at an Oct. 21 community meeting.
The Robert Smalls project was the largest item on the $345 million 2019 school bond referendum, with a price tag of $71 million.
Site work is beginning at the school this month, and large-scale construction will start in January 2022, according to district spokesperson Candace Bruder.
Students and staff will move into the new school building in August 2023, and the campus’ new athletic facilities will be ready to use in January 2024, according to the district’s chief operational officer, Robert Oetting.
That timeline, along with the overall timeline for the referendum, has been delayed. Originally, students were slated to move to the new building in January of 2023 as crews demolished the old building.
Rob Corbin, the district’s referendum project manager through CBRE Heery, said at an Oct. 6 referendum monitoring committee meeting that the delays at Robert Smalls are due to a national shortage of steel, which in turn has caused building material costs to rise.
Nikos Katsibas, a project manager with LS3P, said the new school building will have two floors and four wings connected by a central spine.
Pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms will be housed on the first floor, along with the gymnasium, cafeteria, media center and administrative offices; middle school classrooms will be hosted on the second floor. The first floor will also connect to outdoor learning pavilions.
Who is Robert Smalls?
Honoring Robert Smalls is at the forefront of the new-school project, according to Katsibas.
Smalls, born into slavery in Beaufort, commandeered a Confederate battleship, the C.S.S. Planter, in 1861 and delivered it to the Union, earning his freedom in the process.
He would go on to become a media darling and Union soldier, helping to convince President Abraham Lincoln to allow Black soldiers to serve in the Union Army and Navy.
After the war ended, he was elected to the South Carolina legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, where he advocated for compulsory public education and civil rights for newly-freed slaves.
The new school entrance will feature a two-story lobby and stairwell, with immediate access to the media center.
In the lobby, the school will pay tribute to Robert Smalls with a decorative design on the floor, depicting his journey down the coast from Charleston to Beaufort in the C.S.S. Planter along with metal inlays describing important events in Smalls’ life.
On the main wall of the lobby, a giant graphic will feature the C.S.S. Planter and local marine life. It will be visible from the outside of the school.
In the corridor between the cafeteria and the lobby, there will be illustrated portals serving as a timeline on both sides of the wall. The timeline is being developed with the Robert Smalls Association and school staff, LS3P project architect Emily Dawson said.
“The timeline begins with Robert Smalls’ life and continues all the way up to present day with information on the school’s history, local history of Beaufort and South Carolina as well as major national historic events,” Dawson said.
What will the outside of the school look like?
The new school building will be located behind the existing building. The existing track and field facilities will remain, and the school will get new ball fields on the northeast end of the campus near W.K. Alston Drive.
The new layout of the campus will also increase the available space for car riders along W.K. Alston Drive. The car rider line will loop around mature oak trees on the campus in order to preserve them.
Buses will enter and exit on the southern side of the campus, away from the car rider line.
There will be 137 paved parking spaces on campus and an additional six spaces near the ball fields.
The main entry to the school building will be in front of the parent drop-off line, and the materials used for the outside of the school will resemble those of the C.S.S. Planter, the ship that Smalls commandeered.
Builders will use neutral-toned brick, wooden panels and a standing-seam metal roof on the exterior. Classrooms will open into a series of porches that face the parent drop-off line. The cafeteria will also open to an outdoor-dining patio.
The entry canopy will be clad in wood panel and shaped like the bow of a ship.
The athletic wing will have its own entryway, with a white-brick connector to the north academic wing. The multipurpose room will open to a covered outdoor play porch for students.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 9:25 AM.