— — Tonawanda school board members and about a dozen residents heard sales pitches Wednesday from three area architecture firms vying to win the board’s approval to design plans to consolidate the district’s elementary schools into one building.

District residents will eventually be asked to vote on whether to condense the district’s elementary school operations into a single campus, most likely the Fletcher School property, due to its location near the secondary complex and land availability.

In the meantime, district leaders invited the three firms — Ashley McGraw Architects, which has offices in Syracuse and Long Island, Kideney Architects and Wendel Duchscherer, both of Amherst — to present their plans for a new building. Board members will review each plan further and try to pin down cost estimates for each one.

Each firm was given an hour Wednesday to offer its proposals and field questions from board members and the public who attended the meeting, held in the Tonawanda High School auditorium.

While each firm’s proposal had their own unique characteristics, some common themes emerged, most notably promoting sustainability through green technologies, such as solar panels and rain gardens.

These building characteristics would reduce utility costs for the new building, while also mitigating the environmental impact to the surrounding neighborhood. Moreover, representatives from each firm said, the use of such environmentally friendly materials and energy sources would make the building itself a learning tool for students.

“Good design is sustainable design,” explained Aliesa Adelman, of Wendel Duchscherer.

Some of the proposals included renovating Fletcher School and adding on to it, while others would require full demolition of the building to make way for a brand-new facility. “I’m intrigued by the designs where we still keep the facade of Fletcher School,” school board president Sharon Stuart said after the three-hour meeting. “It’s a neighborhood icon.”

The school, built in the 1930s, is structurally sound, meaning large portions of it could be incorporated into the consolidated design plans. Currently, the district has two other elementary schools, Mullen and Riverview. District officials decided to close Highland Elementary School after the 2009 academic year due to declining enrollment. A consolidation would mean condensing approximately 900 elementary school pupils from three buildings into one.

Stuart said Wednesday’s session was the first of what is expected to be a series of meetings on the elementary school consolidating issue.

Here’s a recap of each firm’s proposals, in the order in which they presented.

Kideney Architects offered designs that incorporate as much natural lighting as possible in order to minimize the need for artificial light, which in turn can help reduce energy costs. “Studies have shown that students who have more daylighting into their classrooms outperform those who don’t,” said Kideney representative Tracy Conhiser.

Kideney representatives stressed a “whole building, integrated design approach” that takes into consideration how building elements affect one another to make the school building as efficient as possible.

Kideney presented three schemes, the first of which features a renovation of Fletcher School to house pre-kindergarten through first-grade classes, with a new building constructed for second- through fifth-graders. It also includes a new common area for offices, a cafeteria, auditorium and gym. Separating the aud and gym would allow the public to use those spaces without encroaching on classroom space, said Kideney Executive Vice President David Varecka.

In Kideney’s second scheme, Fletcher School is demolished, and two new buildings are constructed. In the third rendering, the front entrance would be shifted to Fletcher Street. The common area would be in the center, with the pre-K through first-grade building on one side and the intermediate structure on the other.

Kideney was the only firm to offer cost estimates. The district can receive up to 89 percent in state aid for the project. After state aid, the schemes range in price from $5.9 million to $11.3 million. “You will get aid for these,” Varecka said of the new buildings. “You won’t get aid for an existing building.”

Wendel, the evening’s second presenter, also pitched ideas to the school board for the relocation of Clinton Small Stadium. Wendel’s Brian Brady said designing a new school is an entirely different project. “Designing a new stadium is like asking an architect to design a three-car garage. A new school is like designing a three-bedroom house — there’s a million possibilities with a house,” he said.

Wendel has worked on several school projects in Western New York, including Akron, Bennett and Riverside high schools, Brady said. The firm brought in Gary Nyberg, who works out of Wendel’s Minneapolis office, which has worked on numerous school projects there.

Dave Kenyon, a landscape architect with Wendel, said the company will look to better incorporate the single elementary campus into the neighborhood. “It has a campus feel but it leaves a lot to be desired. The site isn’t being maximized the way it can be,” said Kenyon, a Tonawanda graduate.

Nyberg presented three sketches Wendel architects devised. The first was an entirely new school building and campus that occupies all of the property’s land, which abuts Gibson, Hinds and Fletcher streets.

Similar to Kideney’s proposal, Wendel’s would create areas that could open to the community but don’t impede with classrooms. The first proposal features a “racetrack” design, with support facilities in the center and classrooms around the edge. Kindergarten through second-graders would be on the first floor, while third- through fifth-graders would be on the second.

Wendel’s proposals emphasize the use of “outdoor classrooms,” such as nature trails, shelters or an edible garden “to create a more dynamic site than what we have now,” Kenyon said.

Wendel’s two other renderings both feature a renovation of Fletcher School, one of which includes a three-story addition for classrooms set toward the back of the building.

Ashley McGraw Architects offered the evening’s final renderings, taking a more philosophical approach to the idea of consolidating the elementary schools. “We can actually create a building that becomes a model for other schools to come...by starting in the present and looking forward,” said Nick Signorelli.

Much of Ashley McGraw’s pitch was on creating a building with a “net zero” energy impact, meaning it creates as much energy on site as it uses. It would be a groundbreaking approach in New York state, according to Ashley McGraw partner Peter Larson. “That is something that nobody in this state has actually done yet,” he said.

The feat would be achieved through the use of solar panels, among other renewable energy sources.

Ashley McGraw’s proposal incorporates the existing Fletcher building. “It’s a very strong building structurally. We feel that the 1930s part of the building should be maintained,” Signorelli said. “It’s very important to the community. It sits diagonally to the street and seems to say, ‘I’ve been here 70 years and it’s OK to stay here.’”

The Ashley McGraw design is highlighted by what Signorelli calls a “creative corridor” that would begin with a variety of technological tools near the front entrance, such as a kiosk with information on sustainable aspects of the building. “Our concept with this creative corridor is to lead you from technology into nature,” Signorelli said, explaining that the corridor would lead to a cafeteria where students could look out and see a rain garden.

The corridor also connects to music and art spaces, an auditorium and a gym. The academic space would be housed in three levels, with classrooms grouped by grade.

The firm’s owner, Ed McGraw, said community engagement would be critical to the project in order to give it a character unique to Tonawanda. “You don’t need somebody else’s school here,” he said. “You need Tonawanda’s school here.”