As the designs near completion, the Middle School Building Committee will be presenting a progress update at Westbrook High School, room 114 on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

“We’ve gone a long way since we last went out to the public,” said City Councilor John O’Hara, who chairs the committee with Westbrook Planning Board member Rene Daniel. “We owe the public a nice meeting.”

The committee and some 17 subcommittees having been working over the last few months on nailing down the layout of classrooms, offices and the library, choosing interior and exterior designs, developing landscaping plans and numerous other aspects of the building and grounds.

“I think the most exciting thing is the technology that will exist in the school. Not only in the building, but the whole campus will be wireless,” said Superintendent Stan Sawyer. The wireless Internet connection will allow projects and experiments to be completed outdoors. He suggested it may even increase the number of parents who can make it to games, since they’ll be able to work while they watch their children play.

For those involved in the project, the excitement around the building has not died down these months after voters approved the school at referendum in May.

“It’s long overdue for the middle school and our community,” said Sawyer.

Residents voted May 22 to approve a new, $29.4 million school, which would be state funded, and to authorize $4.1 million in local spending to pay for an auditorium.

Sawyer said Tuesday’s meeting will be an opportunity for the building committee, along with architect Dan Cecil of Harriman Associates, to give an update to the school committee, the Westbrook City Council and the community. Those at the meeting are encouraged to give feedback and suggestions on the various aspects of the building that will be presented.

For O’Hara, the building has a number of aspects that he considers “most exciting,” not the least of which is the first-class auditorium for the community, which could eventually bring in revenues as a prime performing arts space.

“That, and the way the building will be a green building is a really exciting part of this,” O’Hara said. The new middle school will be LEED certified, meaning it will meet the criteria of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design progam of the U.S. Green Building Council. It will use geothermal energy for climate control. Recent digging for the geothermal wells was successful, as much higher quantities of water than needed were found.

The school will be built on a 65-acre plot off Stroudwater Street, purchased from Thomas DeWolfe and Elizabeth Faye in 2006 for just under $990,000. O’Hara is enthused by the property, and thinks the purchase was one of the best decisions the city has made.

“That land belongs not only to the people that are here now, but for the people in the future to come. And leaving half of it green space, it’s unbelievable,” O’Hara said.