Salt Lake City’s West and Highland highs are getting major makeovers. Here are the final design plans.

New campus designs for West and Highland high schools have been finalized — and both are set for major makeovers in the coming years.

Salt Lake City school board leaders selected the final design plans for both campuses Tuesday, narrowing them down from several proposed options.

The long-awaited decision comes after voters approved the Salt Lake City School District’s $730 million bond last month, securing funding for what officials have called much-needed upgrades.

Construction isn’t expected to begin until spring 2026 at the earliest, and design plans for the interior and exterior of the buildings are still being developed. VCBO Architects will lead the design for West, while Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects will oversee the Highland project.

“We have a lot to plan now that we know what the layout for each site will look like,” said district spokesperson Yándary Chatwin. “Community input will be an important part of that process, and we are working to determine what that will look like.”

West High’s new campus will preserve original main entrance

Rebuilding West and Highland high schools has been years in the making, Chatwin previously told The Salt Lake Tribune.

In 2022, the school board commissioned two feasibility studies for West and Highland. They were carried out by separate architectural firms and each hosted multiple community and staff meetings to gather input.

Paul Schulte, the district’s then-auxiliary services director, presented the results to the board in February 2023, outlining several rebuild options at various price points. Three options were proposed for Highland and four for West.

The Salt Lake City school board voted Aug. 6 to place the $730 million bond proposal on November’s ballot, but held off on making final decisions about the rebuilds until after the election.

On Tuesday, board members selected “Option 3” for West High. This option preserves West’s original main entrance — a tribute to its history as the first public high school in Utah — while replacing everything else.

West’s main academic buildings will be relocated to the opposite side of 300 West, where the baseball field, track and tennis courts are currently situated.

The historic main entrance will remain as is, flanked by a new auxiliary gym on one side and a main gym on the other. A new field house will also be constructed.

The concept includes plans to build a sky bridge connecting both sides of the campus, allowing students to move between them without having to cross 300 West.

While the football field will remain in its current location, it will be upgraded with a new track encircling it. Gean Plaga Stadium, named after West’s acclaimed football coach who died in 2005, will keep its name but be rebuilt.

The project will take approximately seven years, but students will remain in the current building while the new one is constructed across the street. That new building will be complete in about three years and the estimated overall cost is around $304 million.

West High holds historical significance as Utah’s first public high school. It was founded in 1890, and the building that stands today was first constructed in 1922. Many residents asked district officials to preserve the building in its entirety.

It’s an option that was proposed and explored, but doing so would cost the district upward of $412 million. It could also take 8½ years, and students would have to be in classroom portables for the majority of those.

“With students in portables for five to seven years, that is a miserable outlook on a high school career for a lot of students,” Isaac Astill, executive director of auxiliary services, told board members Tuesday.

Highland’s redesign will keep sports facilities on campus

Highland’s main building will be moved to the north end of the property, closer to 2100 South, according to the approved design.

The project will take approximately five years to complete and will be executed in two stages.

Students won’t have to be put into portables and will remain in the existing building while construction is completed on the new one. Estimated project costs range from $295 million to $310 million.

The design option approved Tuesday, the first of three, differs from the original proposal. The initial concept relocated Highland’s tennis courts and soccer fields to the now-vacant site of the former Rosslyn Heights Elementary School building.

The Rosslyn Heights property sits about a half a mile east of Highland. However, the finalized design keeps the facilities on campus.

Bond also supports other school improvements

Salt Lake City voters overwhelmingly supported the bond that will fund these projects, with 61% voting in favor.

With its passage, residents can expect to see an increase in their property taxes. The exact increase will vary depending on individual home values, said Chatwin, but homeowners will likely pay roughly $38.33 more in annual property taxes for every $100,000 of their home’s value.

Based on the average home value of $576,000, this translates to an estimated annual property tax increase of about $220.80, according to the bond proposal.

Along with rebuilding West and Highland high schools, the bond will also finance an athletic field house at East High School and sustainability initiatives at various campuses throughout the district.