Southern Okanagan Secondary School is the Judges’ Choice winner for best overall entry in the 6th annual Southern Interior Construction Association Commercial Building Awards.
The school also won the Excellence Award in the community facilities category at a recent event that highlights the best commercial and industrial properties built between January 1, 2013 and July 31, 2014 in the Thompson, Okanagan and Kootenay regions.
Mitch Van Aller, the school district’s former director of facilities, is the man who led the construction project to renovate and expand SOSS into what he believes is one of the most beautiful secondary schools in the province.
That project took a dramatic turn when a huge fire destroyed much of the school in early September of 2011.
The rebuild was the biggest project Van Aller worked on since coming to School District 53.
“From the conceptual stage to the grand opening, you’re talking about more than eight years of work,” he said. “That took up a large chunk of my time during my 11 years on this job.”
Construction of the renovation was more than 85 per cent complete when the fire destroyed all of the old part of the school and a large section of the addition.
The cause of the fire has never been determined and no criminal charges have ever been filed.
“It was a very emotional day . . . to see so much history go up in smoke,” said Van Aller. “It was a tough time for the entire community, but there was nothing we could do but come up with a plan to rebuild, so that’s exactly what we did.”
After months of planning and construction, the new and improved SOSS officially re-opened the first week of February.
The end result is what Van Aller considers to be one of the most beautiful high schools in the province. “I’ve been in this business a long time and been to literally hundreds of schools and I don’t think there’s another school with a student population of 600 or less that comes close to what we have here,” he said. “There’s not a school in the province that can match it.”
The crown jewel of SOSS remains the upgraded Frank Venables Theatre, which is state-of-the-art and comparable to any community theatre in British Columbia, Van Aller said.
