Herriman High School
The new Herriman High School is the fourth facility MHTN designed to meet the needs of the rapidly growing Jordan School District. Herriman High School was built in one of Utah’s fastest growing Cities, Herriman in the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley, where the 3 existing High Schools designed for 2,500 students had swelled to over 3,000 students in each. Before building the new Herriman School existing staff, administrators, students and teachers were interviewed on how the new school could be improved and what programs needed to be added or enhanced. MHTN held workshops with existing school principals, staff and students to review potential changes and new functions to be included in the school.
The results of these interviews and workshops resulted in the inclusion of a mini theater/lecture hall with 100 seats, doubling the number of computer classrooms from 4 to 8, revised greenhouse and science classrooms and wiring the entire school for data and internet access and wireless systems to serve the school. The seating area of the cafeteria was doubled (existing schools had high demands that were not being met) this provides for not only lunches but provides another space for group activities and collaboration areas. Dance, fitness and aerobics classrooms were moved to added second floor space and provide with large skylights for daylighting. The entire school was redesigned to meet new building codes including structural design to new seismic standards, building envelope changes to exceed new energy Code and new electrical systems designed to lower lighting power requirements, increase data and communications distribution and provide enhanced security. The school is designed to serve community needs for meeting, social, civic and recreational uses.
The school opened in August with rave reviews from community leaders, staff and most importantly students. Follow up interviews reported that faculty and students were not only pleased but felt privileged to be part of the new school. The instant unification of students from three surrounding schools into a new student body full of school spirit and pride was gratifying to all involved in the planning and design of this facility. The students had met during the spring and summer and helped design school logos, team names and colors, uniforms and branding and are proud to be the newest Five A school, the Herriman Mustangs. The school also became an evacuation center and community hub within the first two months of being opened when wild fires on the nearby hillsides forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes in town of Herriman.
