The five-story Lane Hotel building has been Rogers, Arkansas’ most prominent landmark since it was completed in 1928. Its striking Spanish Colonial design even helped it land on the National Register of Historic Places. So when the building was vacated in 2005, it was ripe for redevelopment, except for one obstacle: the challenge and expense of updating the building with a sufficient fire-suppression systems, which scuttled proposal after proposal from developers.

We finally solved the problem as part of the team that restored the building for use by Haas Hall Academy, a private charter high school. First we solved the biggest obstacle, getting water to the site. We sized the water line to provide sufficient pressure for sprinklers on all five floors, carefully installing a new supply line under an adjacent property and brick street. Without this the building could not be renovated. We then worked closely with the architects to run the line through a new stairwell constructed for egress, and solved the problem of where to house the fire pump by installing it seamlessly in the same stairwell. The end result was a safe, inspiring school building whose mechanical systems don’t detract from its timeless beauty or beloved landmark status.

Haas Hall Academy was rated the 19th best high school in the country by U.S. News & World Report in 2015 and considered one of the top high schools in the country by Newsweek.