Schools

Houston History, New Construction, Schools

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â€œHouston must have looked huge to Lyndon Johnson as he drove toward it across the flat Gulf plains in his battered little car,â€ writes Robert Caro in his biography of the former president. Johnsonâ€™s destination: Sam Houston High School (shown at top), which opened in 1921 in place of the even-older Central High School on the block bounded by Austin, Rusk, Caroline, and Capitol — the same spot where the new Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is now â€œ90 percent complete,â€ according to Paper Cityâ€™s Annie Gallay.

Hired to teach public speaking and coach the debate team, Johnson — writes Caro — promised his new principal heâ€™d win the state championship. He didnâ€™t, coming in second at the tournament in Austin. Still, Johnson had succeeded in making a name for himself among staff — who gave him a $100 raise and a contract for the next school year — and among the schoolâ€™s 1,800 students — who jockeyed for enrollment in â€œMr. Johnsonâ€™s speech classâ€ during the following school year. By the end of LBJâ€™s first full year at Sam Houston, reports Caro, enrollment had increased from 60 to 110 new students.

Sam Houston High to HSPVA

77003, Downtown, High Schools, Houston History, New Construction, Schools

10/17/18 4:00pm

How the River Oaks Baptist School Plans To Double Down on Space, Break on Through to the North Edge of Westheimer

Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Schools

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The 2 new buildings that the River Oaks Baptist School plans to start constructing side by side next month don’t have much in common with each other besides their location. The brick one — shown left to right at the video’s 9-second mark — mimics the look of the existing campus structures north of Westheimer and west of Willowick, one of which it abuts. Dubbed the school’s “Leadership Center,” it’s planned to house administrative staff along with some other adults. The taller, southern building on the other hand takes things in an entirely new direction with its multi-level, saw-tooth-edged terraces. Each one of its 4 floors will belong to a specific grade: fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth. Right now, they all share spaceÂ with pre-K through fourth grade students in the existing campus north.

By adding on 160,000-sq.-ft., ROBS will more or less double its existing footprint — reports the HBJ‘s Fauzeya Rahman — and push out to front Westheimer directly (where a new “guard entrance” will go), displacing the former Walgreens building that sits behind Pinkberry and ZoÃ«’s Kitchen’s shared restaurant structure in the process. It’ll also make room for the school to start adding “10 students per grade level,” to what’s now an 853-kid count, Rahman writes, over an unspecified period of time. Follow along to the spot about 35 seconds in, when the camera glides into the first floor of the modern building offering a view of where its youngest tenants will congregate.

Virtual Video Tour

77027, Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Schools

Renovations

08/24/18 10:30am

Hogg Middle School Hopes To Bring Order to Its Backyard Free-for-All with Sports Field, Playground, Batting Cages

Schools, Sports Facilities, Woodland Heights

Without any formal backyard practice facilities, students make their own fun behindÂ James Hogg Middle School’s Woodland Heights building. But a set of plans the school calls Outside Hogg now aims to tame things at the north end of the property along E. 11th St.

The idea is to redo it as a proper sports field, complete with a scoreboard and bleachers:

Razorback Recess

77009, Landscape, Renovations, Schools, Sports Facilities, Woodland Heights

08/16/18 12:15pm

Shady Acres Goddard School Is Graduating to the Other Side of Durham Dr.

New Construction, Schools, Shady Acres

A Swamplot reader sends a few drive-by snapshots of construction on the Goddard School’s campus expansion, now going up along both sides of W. 23rd St west of Durham. The photo at top shows the 2-story steel framing now rising on the north side of the street, while the one above shows the portion of the preschool that’s going up opposite it, just east of Wright-Bembry Park.

Blue fencing now separates the green space from the south construction site:

Steel Preschool Skeletons

77008, New Construction, Schools, Shady-Acres

08/03/18 4:00pm

Schools Are Now Buying Special Insurance Policies In Case They Get Shot Up

Quicklink, Schools

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SCHOOLS ARE NOW BUYING SPECIAL INSURANCE POLICIES IN CASE THEY GET SHOT UP The market for “active-assailant” insurance is alive and well, reports the Wall Street Journal, as more and more private schools, public schools, charters, and universities go on fiscal defense against the threat posed by fire-armed students — who cost districts a lot of money in counseling expenses, crisis management, extra security, and of course lawsuits. (“If you’re a risk manager for a school district, you have to look at it with the same eye that you might look at coverage for a tornado,” says a researcher at the University of South Carolina. “We live in a very litigious United States.”) The policies function as a type of gap insurance, covering expenses not typically included in general liability like funeral costs and death benefits, often up to $250,000 per victim. For smaller schools, premiums range from roughly $1,800 to $1 million, and for larger ones up to $20 million. Just last month, Ohio underwriter McGowan Program Administrators wrote over 60 policies, a representatives tells the WSJ. And of the 300 policies it’s written total, some have already been paid out. [Wall Street Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe, Texas: Santa Fe ISD

Insurance, Quicklink, Schools

Downtown

07/02/18 12:15pm

Here’s 2 Years of HSPVA Construction Crammed into 30 Riveting Seconds

New Construction, Schools, Theater District

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From start to finish, the video above fast forwards through about 2 years of construction on the Kinder High School for Performing and Visual Artsâ€™ new building at 790 Austin St. Following an official groundbreaking in late 2014, workers stacked 5 floors atop a 2-story underground parking garageÂ (which took on about 10 in. of water during Harvey) — leaving space in the front face on Austin St. for a multistory jigsaw-like window.

That opening started out as more of a hole:

Assembly Period

77002, Downtown, HISD, New Construction, Schools

06/25/18 1:30pm

Sprawled-Out Sam Houston State Art Facilities Make a Break for New All-in-One Studios

New Construction, Schools

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At least one imaginary student couldn’t be more excited for Sam Houston State University’s new Art Complex. It’s not up and running yet, however; construction on theÂ 4-floor studio and gallery space began earlier this month, after the school’s Board of Regents okayed Kirksey Architectureâ€™s plans for the building in February.

When finished, it’ll consolidate the art facilities now spread across 7 separate campus buildings, mapped out below:

Kilns Out Back

77340, Huntsville, New Construction, Schools

Demolitions

05/25/18 12:45pm

Breaking Down the Backside of Stephen F. Austin High School Where a New Western Half of Campus Will Rise

Eastwood, New Construction, Schools

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The back portion of Eastwood’s Stephen F. Austin Senior High School off Telephone Rd. is in the process of being pulverized to make room for a new western section of the campus that’ll go in its place. Like the demolished section, the soon-to-be built 184,000-sq.-ft. portion will back up to S. Lockwood Dr. along Jefferson St. Asbestos cleanup preceded the current demo.

Workers’ next job will be to gut the interior of the school’s original 1936 front section along Dumble St. — but not until it achieves an all-clear from asbestos as well:

Eastwood Redo

77023, Demolitions, New Construction, Renovations, Schools

05/23/18 11:45am

What It Would Take To Bring Security Checkpoints to Your Neighborhood School

Quicklink, Santa Fe, Schools

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WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO BRING SECURITY CHECKPOINTS TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL Following up on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s suggestion of hardening security at Texas schools,Â Texas Monthlyâ€™s R.G. Ratcliffe does the math: “The price of walk-through metal detectors range, in general, from about $3,500 to $5,000 each. There are more than 9,100 public school and charter school campuses in Texas. If metal detectors cost $4,000 each, then the total price tag for equipping the state school buildings would run about $36.4 million.” The problem: that accounting only budgets in one metal detector per campus. Last week, Patrick argued for limiting the ways in and out of Texas’ schools because “There arenâ€™t enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit.” But, notes Ratcliffe, even New York-style frisk points at each door wouldn’t have defended against other school shooting tactics, like those of Adam Lanza, who “shot out a window made of tempered glass” to get inside the locked Sandy Hook Elementary School. When police arrived at that building, their only option was to bust open a window themselves to enter, momentarily delaying their response to the massacre — which “took about eleven minutes.” [Texas Monthly] Photo: Santa Fe ISD

77517, Santa Fe, Schools

04/20/18 5:00pm

What First Presbyterian’s New 4-Story School Building off Montrose Blvd. Will Look Like

Museum District, Proposed Developments, Schools

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During- and after-school views east across Oakdale St. show the 4-story, Gensler-designed school building that First Presbyterian Church plans to build adjacent to its current one in the Museum District. The new building is tucked into the pie slice of streets and parking lots north of the MFAH between Montrose Blvd. and Main. It sits on 2 vacant lots totaling just under one fifth of an acre in the loop formed by Oakdale and Pinedale streets. Catty-corner to it is the existing First Presbyterian School’s driveway — visible at the bottom of the daytime view above.

A sliced-open view from the building’s backside shows its lobby fronting the existing pre-K-through-8 school:

Museum District

77004, Churches, Museum District, Proposed Developments, Schools

04/17/18 10:15am

Wharton Elementary’s 3-Story Add-On Now Looming Large Behind Original Schoolhouse on W. Gray

Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Schools

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Wharton Elementary School’s 3-story backyard addition has moved upÂ steadily from its previous grade level since 2016 and is now standing tall behind the existing single-story schoolhouse at 900 W. Gray. The least-finished portion of the new building shown in the photo at top is where the school’s new glassy main entrance will go in supplement of the current one at the front of the existing building. North of the 3-story entry atrium facing Columbus St., the new first floor will house mostly administrative officesÂ — with some added classrooms above them.

A shady but still grassless courtyard separates the new structure from the old:

Schooling North Montrose

HISD, Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Schools

Alief

04/12/18 4:45pm

The Job’s Nearly Done on Alief ISD’s New Richmond Ave Center for Advanced Careers

New Construction, Schools

The new 235,000-sq.-ft. job training center Alief ISD started building 2-years ago on the corner of W. Houston Center Blvd. and Richmond Ave is almost a done deal. Now that the building — dubbed the Center for Advanced Careers — is up, the photo at top looks across W. Houston Center from outside Walmart to show what will be the entry to its culinary arts wing at the far end of the blocked-off driveway. A view facing north back when the 19-acre site was still flat and home to the Golf Range on Richmond shows where visitors used to tee off on it.

The new building is wrapped by parking lots:

Training Grounds

77077, Alief, New Construction, Schools

01/09/18 5:00pm

How Much Headway Has Been Made on Lamar High School’s Eastside Extension

New Construction, Schools, Uncategorized, Upper Kirby

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The steel is up on the site of Lamar High School’s new campus, nearly in its sophomore year of construction adjacent to the existing building at 3325 Westheimer. Photos of the new schoolhouse — which will front Eastside St. to the east of the old building — show it still in assembly on what used to be the high school’s track and athletic field. When it’s done, the planned 4-story structure will house 2,800 to 3,100 students, who will spend most of their class time in the new building, but still be able to access its neighbor through a 2nd-story concourse that links to it.

The perspective section below from architect Perkins + Will slices open both the planned and existing buildings and peers south into their classrooms. On the right, it shows the concourse plugging into the old building’s gray exterior:

Secondary Education Building

77098, New Construction, Schools, Upper Kirby

Bellaire

09/14/17 4:45pm

The Biggest Montessori Classroom You’ve Ever Seen Is Now In Session in the Post Oak School Gym

by Swamplot

Disaster Aftermath, Flooding, Schools

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One hundred seventy 3-to-6-year-old students restarted their school year at the Post Oak School in Bellaire this week in one very large classroom: the school’s basketball gym. Harvey flooded the lower school campus at Bissonnet St. and Avenue B in Bellaire with 4 inches of water throughout its first floor late last month. The result: 15 classrooms and other learning spaces were temporarily closed as a result of water damage.

Five elementary-school classes were moved to Episcopal High School, which is next door to the 54-year-old Montessori school. But the Post Oak School’s 6 separate primary-level classes are staying on campus at 4600 Bissonnet — only relocated into its largest available unflooded space. Over 3 days prior to the reopening, Post Oak employees, parents, and volunteers from Austin Montessori School set up a giant six-pack of Montessori classrooms using whatever undamaged furniture and materials they could find. And — as the video above shows — they filmed it all.

More views of classes, now in session: