Category Archives: 2012 bond

Kinder HSPVA celebrates ‘topping out’ of new building

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Workers and guests gathered on the fourth floor of the new Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts on Wednesday to watch as a crane hoisted an evergreen tree to the top of the structure, marking construction of the building’s highest point.

McCarthy Building Companies, contractor on the $80.2 million project, sponsored the Topping Out Ceremony as a way to thank workers and sub-contractors and celebrate their strong safety record. Company officials said the project has an average of 180 workers on site each day and has logged more than 175,000 man hours without a recordable safety incident. Continue reading →

View bond construction progress up close and online – no hard hat required

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Anyone interested in viewing construction progress at HISD bond schools may only need an internet connection, as web cameras are being installed at several sites to make daily update photos available to everyone.

Program management firm Rice & Gardner Consultants recently began installing online web cams at several of the schools for which they provide project management services. Currently three projects, Wilson Montessori, HSPVA, and High School for Law and Justice, have cameras up and running with live internet links. Others are expected to come online in the coming months as more construction gets underway.

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New HSPVA campus to benefit from Kinder Foundation gift

HSPVA Design

The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) is set to receive a contribution in the amount of $7.5 million from the Kinder Foundation, after HISD trustees voted to accept the donation at the October Board of Education Meeting.

The school’s new campus, which is part of HISD’s $1.89 billion bond program and is now under construction in downtown Houston, will be renamed Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in recognition of the gift.

The additional funding will enable the school to upgrade theater seating and equipment, audio/visual systems, music practice rooms, and more, beyond the district standard for high schools that was provided through the bond project budget. Continue reading →

HSPVA construction project goes underground

hspva

Construction on the new High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is well underway in downtown Houston, as workers have already excavated 25 feet into the Earth and hauled away roughly 55,000 cubic yards of dirt to make way for the building’s two-level, underground parking garage.

“When the weather was cooperating with us, we were running 40 trucks per day, averaging close to 400 loads per day out of the hole,” said Wesley Moncrief, senior project manager with McCarthy Building Companies, the construction manager at risk on the project. “Dirt removal will be finished in the next few weeks and then we’ll install two large tower cranes.”

Other activities happening this summer are installation of spread footings, the perimeter basement walls, and subsurface drainage. Barring any major impact to the schedule, Moncrief said he expects concrete to be poured for both levels of below-ground parking as well as the main ground floor of the building by the end of 2016.

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HSPVA gets go-ahead to proceed on new building

Bond community meeting at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, October 14, 2014. (Dave Einsel / Houston ISD)

The new HSPVA will be located downtown near Houston’s renowned Theater District.

The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ new building project received a long-awaited Notice to Proceed from HISD last week, which gives the construction manager at risk (CMAR) the needed go-ahead to mobilize on the site and starts the clock ticking on the 31-month construction timeline.

This is music to the ears of HSPVA stakeholders, as the project has been delayed for about a year while the project team worked through a variety of issues to bring the project within its allotted budget.

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HISD breaks ground on four new campuses, celebrates first project to ‘go vertical’

Two years ago, Houston voters approved a $1.89 billion bond to replace or repair 40 HISD campuses, including 29 high schools. Now, taxpayers are starting to see the fruits of that decision, as HISD officials and community leaders have broken ground on four brand new campuses over the past two weeks, and recognized the first project from the 2012 bond to “go vertical.” Continue reading →

HSPVA breaks ground for new school in downtown theater district

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Construction at the new High School for the Performing & Visual Arts got an enthusiastic start on Sunday with a groundbreaking ceremony that drew hundreds of people to the school’s new location downtown.

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HSPVA community hears about construction, final design plans for new building

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About 25 parents, staff and community members gathered for a final meeting to go over the construction process and design plans for the new High School for Performing and Visual Arts on Tuesday. HSPVA is one of 40 schools throughout HISD that will be rebuilt or renovated under the 2012 bond program.

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Design for new HSPVA becomes ‘more exciting and a little more real’

Architects presented design renderings and 3D images of the new High School for Performing and Visual Arts Thursday at a community meeting that provided a more detailed site plan of the five-story facility.

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Design of new school auditoriums takes center stage

A space that’s usually reserved for student assemblies and performances will become more than a venue for special occasions. A year from now when the new Booker T. Washington High School is built with a new auditorium, the space will become a multifunctional theater with collapsible seating, moveable walls, and a walking grid. It will be a place where students can master production skills in stage lighting, sound, and special effects – like showering snow on an audience.

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