Architects West Inc., of Coeur d'Alene, recently received a contract to design an extensive addition and remodel for Wapato High School in Wapato, Wash., a south central Washington city 12 miles south of Yakima.

The overall project is estimated to cost about $35 million and is being funded through a $20 million bond that voters in the Wapato School District approved last February, along with state matching money, says Kent Chadwell, the project's manager with Architects West.

Chadwell says that Architects West is partnering with Portland, Ore.-based Dull Olson Weekes Architects for design consultation on the project, but he says that firm won't be involved in the entire design process.

The district's high school is outdated and overcrowded, Chadwell says, and the project is to include an addition of 110,000 square feet of space as well as a remodel of 40,000 square feet of existing space.

The sizable addition is to include a second gym, as well as a large commercial kitchen that the district plans to use to prepare meals for the high school and its five other schools, he says.

Classroom space also will be added to the building, bringing its total classroom count to more than 30 rooms, he says.

Chadwell estimates that the high school's current capacity is about 800 students, and says the new facility will be able to accommodate about 1,000 students.

The project currently is in the schematic design phase, Chadwell says. He says that he expects bids for a general contractor to be advertised in June 2012.

The project is expected to be completed by late summer of 2014 to allow for occupancy of the building by the start of school that fall.

The Wapato School District serves about 3,300 students.