Currently rising behind Lee Senior High School: Lee Senior High School. The new building is going up on the south side of the block east of Hillcroft between Beverly Hill St. and Skyline Dr., 1 block south of Richmond Ave. The first foundation slab was poured last Friday, and steel has been going up this week— pictured above are the servery, kitchen, and utility areas, according to the Twitter narration of Brent Oldbury. (The distant Williams Tower can be seen peeking through the steel on the right.)
A north-facing entrance is planned, allowing the school to hold on to the current Beverly Hill St. address despite shifting to the Skyline side of the block. The old building (behind the steel to the left, in the photo above) will watch its younger, prettier replacement going up next door until demolition in early 2017 makes way for sports facilities and parking.
A few renderings were presented at an October 2014 community meeting about the new building’s construction and timeline:
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Plans for the 2-story structure incorporate an interior courtyard:
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Lee HS community briefed on construction plans for new school [HISD]
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Video explores design, planning of new Lee High School [HISD]
Photos: Brent Oldbury via Twitter; exterior rendering: Lake Flato; other renderings: EYP
This seems like a good time to change the name.
What’s wrong with the name? Lee was a legitimate historic figure, not to mention a patriotic hero of the War of Northern Aggression.
I always love hearing about the War of Northern Aggression.
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I’m okay with keeping their current name: history doesn’t always have to be sanitized. With the campus shifting around, it is too bad they could shift some of the tatty neighborhood buildings further out – like to Fort Bend county. I wonder if this is one of the cost overrun campuses that the HISD overlords had to get $200 million out of the tip jar to augment.
They did do a name change, the school use to be called Robert E. Lee Highschool. And it’s not like the kids are being taught the schools namesake anyhow.