Walnut Hills High School
November 6, 2012
Volume CVII, Issue 3
Students will be exercising to a new tune this December New music wing and athletic facilities are set to open November 26
CHARLIE HATCH/CHATTERBOX
The new gymnasium has sound panels on the upper register and a yellow and blue stripe below. Garretson Oester, ‘14 The sounds of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” the splash of flip turns and the incessant pounding of feet on the basketball court will soon return to the main building. Though the first phase of the renovation opened for the academic curriculum, on November 26 the other parts of Walnut Hills High School’s liberal arts curriculum will again be under one roof. The temporary classrooms, referred to as the “music mods,” will disappear and, instead, the music department will be located in a new, self-designed space: five classrooms and a 125 seat recital space. The athletic department, on the other hand will have access to a new gymnasium, larger locker rooms and a six-lane pool. These will be accessed by an extended Arcade, no longer straight, but serpentine. Walk into any of the new
music classrooms and one of the first things noticed is the light coming from ceilings, 16 feet 8 inches high. This is accomplished by using large windows and in the choral and orchestral rooms, on the upper level, by translucent roofs. Hanging from these roofs are “clouds of sound absorption and reflection paneling,” says Alumni Foundation Executive Director Debbie Heldman. The clouds are curved hanging panels. These rooms all have built-in cherry wood storage and recording and playback capabilities, and are configured for the group using them--the choir room has builtin risers. Color-wise, the space includes yellows and grays. Also in this space are small rehearsal rooms, a music library, teacher offices and an electronic musical production space. However, finding the music classrooms at first might be a challenge since that wing will be called the Lyce-
um, which is a Latin modification of a Greek word for a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceus. The Gymnasium/Natatorium complex is centered around the basketball court on the upper level and the swimming pool below. The gymnasium has three seating sections, including one that was added after the original design process, specifically for the Nut House. This space also has a translucent ceiling. To access the new spaces, a new entrance is located off of Jonathan Avenue. It leads into a continuation of the Arcade that runs through the entire building with display cases, a concessions stand and larger restrooms. The pool has six lanes and can be seen from the lower level through a wall of windows. It is not a chlorinated pool; instead it is filtered with an ultraviolet system and seats 210 spectators. Also, on the level with the pool are two locker rooms, for girls and boys,
which can then be transformed into a home and away team room for events on the field. The locker rooms are large, two sectioned spaces and include swimsuit spinners. There are also athletic offices on this level. All of the athletic spaces in the building are being standardized with the same logos and scoreboards. However, the football team will be centered around the basement of the
A music room on the lower level.
old gymnasium, with a separate locker room, laundry facilities and coaches offices. This area will begin construction in January 2013 and finish later in that year. Music department head Kerry Kruze played a role in designing the facilities. “I really appreciate the thought the architects gave,” Kruze said. He drew rough sketches of what he thought would be most useful for the department during the design phase in 2009. “Acoustical divisions were key,” he remarked, remembering the thin walls in the old music space currently occupied by the new Academic Wing. Although the new space is not what he had first envisioned, many of his ideas are incorporated, including the large rooms and the use of instrument storage rooms as sound barriers. Over 140,000 man hours have been put into the project. When asked how the construction workers felt, site superintendent Rick Newcomer says that “the workers are proud of what they have accomplished on this challenging project and will enjoy seeing their hard work showcased.”
JOE SCHMIDLAPP/CHATTERBOX
The Яussians are here! Josh Medrano, ‘13
Students taking AP English Literature at Walnut Hills High School can now take part in reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment in its native language. Actually, everybody can! With the new Russian course, students now have the chance to speak, read and write the eighth most spoken language in the world. The inclusion of Russian in the curriculum deviates from the set of Romantic languages that are currently offered at Walnut, which includes French, Spanish, German and their ancestor, Latin. However, while some students raised eyebrows at the addition, some took advantage, like SENIOR Jordan Posey, who said that he is taking the course because “it seemed new and exciting.”
So far, it has been manageable for Posey, who has also taken French for two years. “Learning Russian is a lot different from learning a Romance language,” he says. “For me, it is more natural regarding grammar and pronunciation than French.” SENIOR Nick Wymer, who has taken five years of Latin and three years of Spanish, would agree, but he is taking the course for another reason: he is going to be a linguistics major in college. Knowledge of Russian leads to many careers, including those in the fields of linguistics, aeronautics and mathematics. Furthermore, it has helped people in their occupations, such as actress Mila Kunis, whose linguistic skills at a press conference in Moscow were taped and went viral on YouTube. The popularity of Russian as a foreign language program in the
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United States has had many “peaks and valleys,” according to Johanka Hart-Tompkins, who was born in Czechoslovakia and has been teaching German at Walnut since 2010. She is also the “maestra” of the new class. She studied Russian along with German at Princeton High School. “These [peaks and valleys] are often dependent on current political and economic relations of the US and Russia,” Hart-Tompkins tells the Chatterbox. “Russian is identified as a critical language by the state department and becoming quite popular again after a decade of decline.” Aside from the excitement about the class, Russian students are starting a Russian club this month, which will offer movie nights, authentic cultural food and projects involving arts and crafts, according to Hart-Tompkins. In
JOSH MEDRANO/CHATTERBOX
The students learn a Russian dance. addition, a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg is planned for the first two weeks of June next summer. The mode of transportation is still in dispute. Students who are interested in next summer’s trip may contact Mrs. Hart-Tompkins for more details.
Jade K. Clark, News & Features Editor
The Chatterbox