Gordon Bell selects field design

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This article was published 09/02/2011 (5519 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After nearly three years of protests, campaigns and deliberation, Gordon Bell High School finally knows what their “field of dreams” will look like.

Last week, the Winnipeg School Division and the provincial Public Schools Finance Board approved the design created by landscape architecture firm Scatliff+Miller+Murray.

The space will have a playing field 80 metres long and 47 metres wide, encircled by a track and landscaping. It will be sunk about  three-quarters of a metre below street level.

The design incorporates a field large enough for football and soccer practices, and caters to runners and walkers, along with space for fine arts presentations. The field will be converted to a skating rink in the winter.

Construction is expected to begin this spring, and could be completed as early as the beginning of the new school year in fall.

“(The architects) were astoundingly creative,” said Gordon Bell principal Arlene Skull. “I would never have dreamed you could do all that with that awkward piece of land.”

A battle for the triangular piece of land adjacent to the school on Portage Avenue — a former car dealership — broke out in fall 2008.

Canada Post had plans to build a mail processing plant on the site, but the province caved to demands from the school and student rallies and bought the land for $5.3 million.

A committee of students, parents, and school division members ultimately had to choose between three designs, but Skull said the choice was clear.

“It was a clear vote. It had more of the features students, parents and the community had said they wanted,” said Skull, adding that the space will be accessible for the school’s handicapped students.

“The had an understanding of the student population and what their interests were.”

Morgan Hoogstraten, the student who led rallies to the legislature, said she was pleased with the students who helped select the design.

“I’m really happy to see the field of dreams progressing with student involvement,” Hoogstraten said in an email from Belize.

“I am very grateful for the government funding and would like to see Gordon Bell with a (football) team some time in the future.

“The school spirit is going to skyrocket now that they have a proper sports outlet,” she said.