The Doors

As construction progressed, all sorts of on-the-job design decisions needed to be made. Often the deciding factor was cost. Monitoring the budget was an art, with unforeseen problems - such as the removal of contaminated soil - that would increase cost, and unforeseen gains - such as less roof repairs needed than expected. One major decision was about the front fire doors: Should they be operable? Most days we would want the doors to be shut as we would not want the noise from the street to distract our students, but for community events and special occasions it could be a lovely feature. We decided to get pricing for both operable and stationary doors. The difference was $12,000. We did not officially have the funds in our budget, but we decided to approve operable doors and raise the funds to make it possible. Mimi Love, our fabulous architect, began designing them at once.