Deerfield High School (Illinois) - History and Campus

History and Campus

The original building was constructed during the mid 1950s in response to the post-War nuclear threat. Construction was completed in 1959 and its first class graduated in 1963. As of 1999, DHS included 327,000 square feet (30,400 m2) of space.

In 2000, DHS and its sister school, Highland Park High School, underwent a two-year, $75 million renovation and expansion project. DHS received new science and arts wings for a total of 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) added and 61,600 square feet (5,720 m2) renovated. The additions and renovations were designed by Legat Architects and executed by VACALA Construction, Inc.

Beginning in 2004, the school ceased comparing the academic achievements of students, nor does it distribute students' class rank to colleges. The elimination of class rank aimed at creating a less stressful competitive academic environment. The school also spends the most in the state of Illinois on each student over the course of a year. The current amount is over $22,000 for each student, each year. This was one of the reasons that Deerfield was ranked second in the top ten towns in which to raise a family in 2007.

The school's hallways are labeled with the letters A through R (skipping "O" to avoid confusion with zero) and X (this hall was added in a later addition to the school). A common prank in the early 1990s saw upperclassmen play on incoming Freshmen is to ask them if they've bought their elevator pass for Z-hall (with the freshmen then attempting to purchase said elevator pass and finding out that neither Z-hall, nor elevators, exist. DHS's rooms are labeled with their hall letter followed by a three digit number. The building is one story tall excluding X-hall and the athletic complex, both of which are two stories. The building has eight courtyards, one of which is used regularly by students and staff. (Until 1988, one of the courtyards was referred to as "The Pit" and was a designated smoking area for faculty and students 16 and older.) There is one large cafeteria divided into four sections: the North Cafeteria, the South Cafeteria (formerly a separate TV lounge until 1993), the Senior Cafeteria (which was originally limited to Senior-use only, but this practice ended in the late 1990s and the name was kept as it contains a large wall with previous year's seniors' hand-prints on it), and the Student Union (which was formerly a separate room next door to the Senior Cafeteria, but was joined with the Senior Cafeteria in the summer of 2010 to accommodate the new schedule, which would have four lunch periods instead of five). The school also has a large student library, seven student computer labs, a Foreign Language Lab, the Writing and English Resource Center Services (the WERCS), a Math Lab, a Bookstore, and a student common space, the Bookstore Lobby.

The land surrounding the school is used as sports fields including six baseball diamonds, ten tennis courts, two soccer fields, one running track, one football field with large bleacher seating, and two soccer fields. All fields also serve the school's other 30 or so sports teams. Although not officially part of the campus, the Prairie Wolf Slough and forest preserve, just north of the campus has a long trail often used by classes and for extracurricular activities.

The DHS Auditorium is a proscenium style theater that seats 914 persons and is used for assemblies and productions of dance, musical theater, and concerts by soloists and large ensembles. The Auditorium's stage house measures 3,200 square feet (300 m2) with a proscenium that is 35 feet (11 m) wide, 18 feet (5.5 m) high and a stage that is 30 feet (9.1 m) deep to the cyclorama. The lighting grid is 30 feet (9.1 m) high. The Studio Theatre is located immediately adjacent to the Auditorium and is used as a backstage area during Auditorium productions. The orchestra pit is located at house level and can contain up to thirty musicians. The stage house has a 7-line, manual, single purchase counterweight fly system, with 500-pound capacity per line-set. In addition, the Auditorium houses a walk-draw white cyclorama, movable tormentors, four travelers, dead-hung teasers and a walk draw black scrim. Lighting and Sound operate from the control booth, located at the rear of the house.

The DHS Studio Theater is a 3,000-square-foot (300 m2) reconfigurable black box theater. Its various seating configurations can accommodate up to 200 persons in thrust, proscenium, stadium, or arena arrangements. The lighting pipe grid is eighteen feet above the stage floor. The Studio Theatre has a reconfigurable walk-draw curtain system with a dedicated inventory of black stage draperies and a sky blue cyclorama. During Studio Theater productions the Auditorium stage is used as backstage.