Selected projects include 10 of the largest high schools slated for construction
Administrators are recommending that the HISD Board of Education authorize the district to negotiate design contracts with 12 firms on a dozen more 2012 bond projects, including 10 of the largest high schools. The projects represent about $750 million in bond dollars.
HISD officials have spent nearly three months reviewing qualifications submitted by 85 architectural and engineering firms seeking to do work with the district under the 2012 bond program, which will build or renovate 40 schools across the district. The $1.89 billion bond program, approved by voters in November, will also fund middle school restroom renovations, technology upgrades, and safety and security upgrades.
As part of the review for the latest round of contracts, the district invited members of each school’s staff and community to hear presentations by the three finalists selected for each project. Their feedback helped guide the district’s recommendations.
“We wanted to ensure that each school community had the opportunity to review the proposals and ask questions,” said Leo Bobadilla, HISD chief operating officer. “The recommended firms represent the best match for each project, taking into consideration the unique perspectives of the parents, staff, and principals who will be working with the architects and HISD staff to redesign their schools.”
Listed below are the most highly qualified firms recommended for the selected projects:
- Bellaire High School (new facility incorporating new science wing): PBK Architects
- Davis High School (new facility preserving the architecturally significant building structure): Bay – IBI
- Furr High School (new facility): ERO
- Lamar High School (new facility preserving the architecturally significant building structure): Perkins-Will
- Lee High School (new facility): WHR
- Milby High School (new facility preserving the architecturally significant building structure): Kirksey
- Relief Elementary School (new facility): English & Associates
- Sharpstown High School (new facility): Munoz
- Sterling High School (new facility): SHW
- Washington High School (new facility): FH-HP
- Yates High School (new facility): Moody-Nolan
- Young Men’s College Prep (partial replacement and general renovations): Harrison Kornberg
“We are extremely pleased with the quality of all these firms, which will help the district build schools that represent the very best in 21st century learning,” said HISD Superintendent Terry Grier.
To assist in the review and selection process, administrators solicited the expertise of professors from
the University of Houston, Rice University, and Prairie View A&M University schools of architecture.
To date, HISD has heard oral presentations from about three dozen firms. All firms, including those not invited for presentations to date, will remain under consideration for other 2012 bond projects, including 21 other schools and districtwide athletic facility upgrades.
The Board of Education will consider the recommendations at its meeting at 5 p.m. on April 11, 2013, in the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center (4400 West 18th Street). All the firms were evaluated using several criteria, including experience, quality of services, and commitment to HISD’s stated goals for participation by minority and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs).
Five of the firms — ERO, Harrison Kornberg, Moody-Nolan, Munoz, and English & Associates are certified M/WBEs, which means they are at least 51 percent owned by one of the following groups: African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American or women. The other seven companies have committed to contracting at least 25 percent of their work to M/WBE consultants..
Overall, the design firms’ commitment will ensure 51 percent participation by M/WBE firms for the projects selected so far in the 2012 bond program. HISD’s minimum M/WBE goal levels are 20 percent for all levels of purchasing and construction and 25 percent for professional services.