The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics is planning a 200,000-square foot addition to its west Durham campus, which will update current facilities and accommodate an increase of 280 students by 2012.

"Everything is in flux," Brock Winslow, vice chancellor for institutional advancement, says of the planning process. But he adds: "This is a great example of what we're not going to do."

He is standing in Maryland Avenue on the west side of the campus and looking up at the Friedrick Educational Technology Complex. Opened in 1997, the four-story building is 20 feet from the street and dwarfs nearby houses. The school's Watts Hospital-Hillandale neighbors howled in anger over the towering cream, stucco-walled structure along Maryland Avenue.

"Chancellor [Gerald] Boarman is committed to the concept of steering development within the confines of what we have and avoiding build-out on the edge of campus," Winslow says.

BACKSTORY: NCSSM opened in 1980 as the nation's first residential public high school for science and math. Plans call for the student body to increase from the current 650 students to 930 by 2012.

NEEDS: Additional classroom and residential space. The cafeteria is the same size as when the school opened. Some classrooms are cramped. There are four distance-learning (broadcast) studios. Eight to 12 are needed.

HOW WILL IT GET DONE? The price tag for the project is $70 million. The focus is the Discovery Center, which would house residential, instructional and distance-learning functions. Talk started at 275,000 square feet. The building has since been scaled back to just more than 200,000 square feet. The addition is approximately half of the school's current square footage.

WHERE WOULD IT HAPPEN? An obvious site would be the space between the Bryan wing and the old hospital, but that is not a given. Baltimore-based firm Ayers Saint Gross is examining ways to expand or remove existing buildings while keeping in step with the historic architectural context. The space along West Club Boulevard dominated by towering hardwoods is not being considered, Winslow says.

IMPACT ON WATTS-HILLANDALE: The neighborhood is one of Durham's most active and vocal. The Friedrick Complex didn't please the neighborhood. There was opposition to a lighted tennis court along Maryland Avenue and a lighted soccer field on Sprunt Avenue along the school's northern boundary. The neighborhood is being included in the planning process, Winslow says.

NEXT STEP: Tentative conceptual drawings will be presented to the school's board of trustees in June. The board, with community input, hopes to have a plan approved by the end of the year.