Facilities and Construction

What’s wrong with the current spaces?
The high school’s music classrooms and black box theater were built during the 1960s. Our award-winning music and theatre programs have expanded their classes and extracurriculars tremendously over six decades. Current learning spaces:

• Are too small and overcrowded.
• Do not meet accessibility requirements.
• Do not meet sound-safety standards.
• Lack storage space and practice rooms.

What is the estimated cost of the proposed project?
$84,604,977.

How will the school pay for it?
That has not yet been determined. The Board and its Community Finance Committee will be holding ongoing discussions about funding, which likely will include asking the community to approve a referendum.

What input has been given on Act 3?
Beginning in spring 2025, the district’s architects conducted interviews, focus groups, and surveys with stakeholders to make sure that the program needs identified by the original Imagine OPRF planning group in 2017 and 2018 are still accurate. A racial equity analysis of needs also was conducted by staff, students, and community members.

The process of producing increasingly detailed designs was done in collaboration with the Imagine 3.0 Committee. This stakeholder group includes original Imagine members, administrators, teachers, staff, current and future parents, and community members.

When will construction start?
Act 3 is not approved to be built. This is still an evolving discussion, and there will be opportunities for community feedback this fall before any board decisions are made regarding timing or funding.

On April 27, 2023, the Board of Education unanimously approved funding the $102 million cost of Imagine OPRF Project 2 with a combination of cash reserves, philanthropic donations, and debt certificates. The project broke ground in summer 2024, with completion in summer 2026.

The second phase of Imagine OPRF focuses on building a new physical education wing at the southeast (Scoville and Lake) corner of the building. This will replace the current structure there and does not include the Fieldhouse.

The replacement wing will include:

• A 25-yard x 40-yard pool and spectator balcony to replace the two current pools, which were built in 1928
• Larger, flexible, multi-use gyms that can serve as a competition space and replace small, limited use gyms
• All-gender locker rooms for gender non-conforming students
• Performing arts dressing rooms (boys, girls, and all gender)
• An elevator that complies with accessibility requirements 
• A multi-purpose/dance gym 
• A weight room
• Boys locker rooms to replace the current ones, which have a host of issues (poor ventilation, plumbing problems, inadequate toilet space, etc.) 
• Girls locker rooms 
• PE classrooms, PE and athletics offices, PE equipment storage and a conference room to replace the ones removed during demolition
• Improvements to the performing arts green room, which does not meet student needs
• Costume shop/storage, prop shop/storage
• An expanded treatment room for athletic trainers that addresses inadequate space and inaccessibility issues
• Student commons and pre-function space 
• Gre en roof to manage stormwater runoff

Project 2 will accommodate some functions that currently are in the southwest Physical Education area of the building, including boys locker rooms, the West Pool, and the trainer’s room. This will make space for moving performing arts to the southwest area of the building, which is called for in the conceptual design for Project 3.

The funding plan that the Board approved involves borrowing $45.3 million in debt certificates, which do not require a referendum nor create an additional tax levy. Instead, the debt certificates will be repaid from the district’s annual operating budget in annual increments of $3.5 million over a period of 20 years. The funding plan also includes $44.2 million from cash reserves and $12.5 million in donations raised by the Imagine Foundation.

In June 2020, Oak Park and River Forest High School began the most significant renovations to its campus in 50 years, funded entirely from existing cash reserves, thereby avoiding a tax increase to property owners and preserving the district’s debt-free status.

The district is working with FGM Architects and Pepper Construction on design and construction of Project 1, which broke ground in June 2020 and was completed in August 2023. The project includes:

• Replacement of the South Cafeteria 
• Addition of a two-story Student Resource Center 
• Renovation of the Main Entrance and Welcome Center 
• Renovation of the Student Activities Center, now called the Student Commons 
• Renovation and addition of Special Education offices and conference rooms 
• Relocation/renovation of Driver Education classrooms 
• Eight new all-gender washrooms 
• Relocation/renovation of mailroom and duplicating 
• New ADA-compliant elevator 
• Renovation of freight elevator  
• Renovations of 65 classrooms, including our special education TEAM classrooms and visual arts labs 
• Addition of 15 new classrooms, including two science labs, in the old library and Tutoring Center spaces