By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News

Frank Meier has designed corporate headquarters in Dallas, office buildings in Moscow, even a palace in Saudi Arabia. But his latest project is among the closest to his heart, because it is close to home.

Mr. Meier, a Dallas architect, is working on an $8.6 million renovation of North Dallas High School. His high school.

"I've got fond memories of my years there," said Mr. Meier, who graduated in 1955 and grew up in a house on Haskell Avenue just a few blocks away. "I went to church across the street. It was my neighborhood."

Work is expected to begin soon on the school renovation, which is funded through the 2000 school bond program.

When the school reopens – plans call for that by the 2006 school year – it will be as a terraced and reconfigured campus. A three-story classroom building will be built across a brick and lawn plaza from the existing 80-year-old structure.

The new facility will complement the Romanesque Revival style of the older building. A section of Haskell Avenue will be closed to create the plaza, which will contain brick walkways and a row of flagpoles with the home-country flags of the school's diverse student population.

The old building, meanwhile, will be updated and its cramped cafeteria expanded.

"As it is now, the school sits there with not much landscaping," Mr. Meier said.

"It's a beautiful old building, but nothing has been improved upon for a long time."

The high school, which borders Uptown, was considered to be on the northern fringe of the city's residential development when it was designed in 1920, he said.

His mother was among the school's early students, and he keeps a copy of her 1927 yearbook on his desk.

Mr. Meier also led an effort to get historical designation for the school.

"School officials weren't entirely pleased with that" because it would limit their flexibility, he said. "But we didn't want someone coming in and buying it and tearing down our old high school."

The Dallas Landmark Commission unveiled a historical marker at the school in 2002. The Dallas architect has been involved in previous projects at the school, including securing a $500,000 federal grant to install solar panels for heating back in the 1970s. The panels have since been disconnected.

Mr. Meier said he hopes that the new campus will contribute to the recent revitalization of the area and that it will make it a better place for students to learn.

"The idea is to give kids a place to go to school that they're excited about," he said. "This has been a passion for me."