Tag: Schools

Downtown
10/16/14 2:15pm

Inside the Stacked Theaters and Studios of the New HSPVA, About To Go Up Downtown

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Proposed Developments, Schools
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New High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Caroline St. and Rusk St., Downtown, Houston

Here’s a cutaway view looking into what’s being called the final design of the new Downtown campus for Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Escalating construction costs have spurred HISD to accelerate the 2012 bond program that’s paying for the new HSPVA campus along with rebuilding programs at approximately 40 schools. So construction on the 5-story, 168,000-sq.-ft. building designed by the Houston office of Gensler is expected to begin within a few weeks, and end shortly after the 2017 school year begins.

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Show and Tell
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Demolitions
10/08/14 10:45am

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Will Move To Slice of Former Shamrock Hotel Site

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Proposed Developments, Schools, Texas Medical Center
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Proposed New Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Pressler St. at Holcombe Blvd., Texas Medical Center, Houston

Edwin Hornberger Conference Center, Former Shamrock Hotel Ballroom, 2151 W. Holcombe Blvd., Texas Medical Center, HoustonHISD intends to demolish the last remaining non-garage portion of the Shamrock Hotel complex early next year as part of its plans for a new DeBakey High School for Health Professions. The Shamrock’s former ballroom (pictured at right), now called the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center, has been operated as an event space by Trevisio Restaurant since 2011, but closed in May of this year. That structure will be scrapped, but the parking garage that shares the conference center’s 2151 W. Holcombe Blvd. address will remain, according to renderings of the new high school project. (The garage is the building bathed in white at right in the rendering above.)

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Still Getting Rid of the Shamrock
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Buying and Selling
05/15/14 3:15pm

HCC Is Planning a Student Dorm Building Too, at Alabama and Almeda

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Midtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Schools
5 Comments

HCC IS PLANNING A STUDENT DORM BUILDING TOO, AT ALABAMA AND ALMEDA 1625 Alabama St., Midtown, Houston, and Tobin Lofts, San AntonioA report from Houston Community College says the commuter school is “in the early stages of planning” its own new dorm complex on the 6 acres of land it bought late last year at the northeast corner of Alabama and Almeda, just southeast of the system’s central campus. The only building currently on the site is the trashed but still brightly painted 107-year-old house at 1625 Alabama St. (pictured at top left) that most recently served as a temporary satellite space for DiverseWorks. The dorms, which would include first-floor retail space and a parking garage, would be modeled after the Tobin Lofts at Alamo Colleges’ San Antonio College in San Antonio (bottom photo). They’d be built and leased out by a private company “until the business makes a predetermined return on its investment,” according to the report. “After approximately seven years, the complex would be given to HCC to own and manage from then on.” [The Chalkboard] Photos: HCC (top); Tobin Lofts (bottom)

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Buying and Selling
05/09/14 10:00am

Visiting the Future Site of the New Third Ward Medical High School with the Ridiculously Long Name

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Proposed Developments, Schools, Third Ward
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Site of Future HCC College of Health Sciences’ Medical Science & Technology Early College Charter High School, Hwy. 288 and North MacGregor Way, Third Ward, Houston

A reader reports seeing some activity on the long-vacant 9.177-acre melting-erlenmeyer-flask-shaped parcel of land at the northeast corner of Hwy. 288 and North MacGregor Way: no construction equipment yet, but crews were picking up trash and cutting grass. The Houston Community College system bought the property last November with plans to build a new medical-focused charter high school on the property.

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288 and North MacGregor
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Eastwood
12/16/13 2:15pm

The Greening of Lantrip Elementary

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Gardening, Landscape, Schools
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New Garden Beds, Lantrip Elementary School, 100 Telephone Rd., Eastwood, Houston

Parents and students connected to Eastwood’s Lantrip Elementary School are showing off a new mulch-covered running track, separate wheelchair-ready path, and set of 12 raised garden beds on a decomposed-granite pad built this fall by volunteers from materials purchased with a $20,000 grant the school won in July. The garden-bed installation, pictured above in front of an older campus greenhouse, will also serve as an outdoor classroom for the school at the northern reaches of Telephone Rd. Also newly installed: a set of 20 new fruit trees with irrigation equipment sent by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, in addition to the earlier grant from Keep America Beautiful and the Lowe’s Foundation.

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An East End Greenbelt
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Featured Posts
11/22/13 12:15pm

The River Oaks Plant House Will Be Gone by the End of the Year

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Openings and Closings, Retail, River Oaks, Schools
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River Oaks Plant House, 3401 Westheimer Rd., River Oaks, Houston

River Oaks Plant House, 3401 Westheimer Rd., River Oaks, HoustonThe River Oaks Plant House — also known as the greenery purveyor that regularly festoons the corner of Westheimer and Buffalo Speedway with dancing bears and other fake topiary — will be closing up shop at the end December. Headmaster Mark Desjardins writes in an email that St. John’s School notified the owners of the more-than-30-year-old store in September that its lease would be terminated by December 31. The prep school had purchased the property from the Henry J. N. Taub family, along with the land under Blanco’s Bar & Grill, in a 13-acre deal completed exactly a year earlier.

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Leaving Soon
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Buildings for Sale
10/16/13 10:00am

Working the System: New Bids To Buy HISD’s Law Enforcement HS Are Millions More

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Buying and Selling, Magnolia Grove, Schools
17 Comments

The bids that were submitted to HISD yesterday to buy the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice High School in Magnolia Grove rang up almost $5 million more than those the first time around in July: Neighboring St. Thomas High School is still in the running to purchase the 11-acre campus on Dickson St., just north of Memorial Dr. and Buffalo Bayou; it offered $45 million, compared with the $42 million the private school said it would pay in July. But St. Thomas was again outbid, this time by an entity called Elk Mountain Ltd. — connected, it appears, to the Gordy Oil Company — which submitted a flat $47,927,114.

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Demolitions
10/01/13 2:00pm

Delmar-lition: HISD To Slam Old Swooping Hoops Stadium

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Lazybrook, Stadiums, Timbergrove
14 Comments

We don’t have all that many to spare, but it appears that there will soon be one fewer thin-shell paraboloid roof in Houston: HISD says it plans to demolish the 1958 James M. Delmar Fieldhouse (known now as the Delmar-Tusa Fieldhouse) and build a new facility in its place. According to a press release, the old stadium is “currently in poor condition with major roof leaks, flooding problems in the locker rooms and a sports medicine area that falls short of athletic league standards.”

The 5,000-seat swayback fieldhouse is located at 2020 Mangum Rd., just outside the Loop in Lazybrook and Timbergrove. Designed by Milton McGinty, who also had a hand in the Rice Stadium, the gym served as the home court in the ’60s for UH and the Elvin Hayes-powered Coogs. But it would seem that HISD wants to make haste and move on from that history: “The goal is to have the site ready for construction as soon as possible and complete the replacement facility by late 2016.”

Photo: Houston Daily Photo

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Fourth Ward
09/05/13 2:30pm

In Praise of Carnegie Vanguard’s Mixed-Use Parking Garage

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Parking, Quicklink, Schools
5 Comments

IN PRAISE OF CARNEGIE VANGUARD’S MIXED-USE PARKING GARAGE What does HISD have to show for that $805 million approved in 2007 for new school construction and renovation? MaryScott Hagle reviews the results at Lockhart, Herod, and Peck elementaries and gives props to RdlR Architects for the design of Carnegie Vanguard High School at 1501 Taft — though she seems most taken with the parking garage, which was, she writes, “originally planned for one story that grew to two when the City of Houston offered to pitch in, in exchange for community access to the school’s ball fields on the weekends. . . . Furthermore, the garage itself is dual-purpose: when the academic day is over and the students who park on the garage roof go home, the Carnegie tennis team takes over for practice.” [OffCite] Photo: HISD

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Buildings for Sale
07/18/13 2:00pm

Bids To Buy Law Enforcement HS Punished for Not Following Rules

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Buying and Selling, Magnolia Park, Quicklink
19 Comments

BIDS TO BUY LAW ENFORCEMENT HS PUNISHED FOR NOT FOLLOWING RULES HISD gave a unanimous no today to those competing bids from nearby St. Thomas High School and developer AV Dickson Street to buy the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice in Magnolia Grove. Apparently, the reason the offers for the 11-acre campus at 4701 Dickson St. were rejected had less to do with the numbers than with HISD’s preferred S.O.P.: “[T]he board’s attorney, David Thompson, stated immediately afterward that both bidders had violated the district’s ‘code of silence’ policy, which prohibits communication between trustees and those with pending business before them.” Superintendent Terry Grier tells the Houston Chronicle that the building will be going right back on the market: “Hopefully if we do that, the bidders will take our ethics policy seriously.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HISD

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Apartments
07/10/13 10:00am

How One Buyer Would Use HISD’s Law Enforcement HS Property

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Magnolia Grove, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Schools
17 Comments

HOW ONE BUYER WOULD USE HISD’S LAW ENFORCEMENT HS PROPERTY If the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice is sold to St. Thomas High School competitor AV Dickson Street, the investment company has said it plans to link the 11-acre Magnolia Grove property with the adjacent and recently purchased Bayou Park apartments at 4400 Memorial to create a mixed-use district: Alison Malkhassian of AV Dickson Street tells The Leader‘s Charlotte Aguilar that “the long-term goal . . . could be to create a 26-acre mixed-use luxury retail-office-residential development on the combined properties — a process that would take about a decade.” Yesterday, HISD received the 2nd round of bids: St. Thomas is offering $42 million, about $800,000 more than AV Dickson Street — but Aguilar suggests that the sale might come down to rent: St. Thomas said it would charge the school $225,000 a month to lease the space for the next 5 years, compared with $100,000 a month from AV Dickson Street, a difference of $7.5 million over that time. [The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HISD

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Inwood
07/08/13 12:00pm

New Inwood YES Prep Says No to Next-Door Loan Store

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Neighborhood Disputes, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers
5 Comments

NEW INWOOD YES PREP SAYS NO TO NEXT-DOOR LOAN STORE Calculating interest must not be part of the curriculum: The Leader reports that this vacant Kroger in the shopping center at W. Tidwell and Antoine is being renovated into a YES Prep School, with an inaugural class of sixth-graders ready to file in this August. But ACE Cash Express, the former grocery store’s next-door neighbor at 5616 W. Tidwell, seems to have become suddenly unwelcome, as a YES Prep rep explains: “’We’re worried that the activity there isn’t really compatible with a school, and we have some definite safety concerns. We’re hoping we can get them to relocate. If they don’t, we think their presence could have a negative impact on our ability to have students stay late on campus.’” [The Leader] Photo: Michael Sudhalter

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Buying and Selling
07/03/13 10:00am

A Standoff To Buy HISD’s Law Enforcement HS Campus

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Magnolia Grove, Quicklink, Schools
11 Comments

A STANDOFF TO BUY HISD’S LAW ENFORCEMENT HS CAMPUS The 11-acre parcel for sale in Magnolia Grove where the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice stands has been the object of some poker-faced one-upmanship between two interested contenders: In one corner, you’ve got St. Thomas High School, whose campus is immediately south of here, and in the other you’ve got AV Dickson Street, a recently formed LLC named for the street the HISD magnet school stands on. The first round, reports the Leader’s Charlotte Aguilar, yielded a $40 million offer from little-known AV Dickson, with St. Thomas countering and raising it by $100. The next round will go off early next week. Aguilar adds that whoever buys the campus will be required to lease it back to HISD for the next 5 years, while a new spot is sought: “In keeping with a move by HISD to relocate its specialty high schools close to beneficial community resources –– the DeBakey High School for the Health Professions to the Texas Medical Center, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts to the Theater District downtown –– a downtown location near police and sheriff’s headquarters and courthouses is being scouted.” [The Leader] Photo: HISD

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Quicklink
06/04/13 12:00pm

Is HISD Keeping Rebuilding Jobs from Minority-Owned Firms?

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Schools, Third Ward
38 Comments

IS HISD KEEPING REBUILDING JOBS FROM MINORITY-OWNED FIRMS? That’s what the Houston chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (or HNOMA) seems to suspect, having sent a letter to HISD superintendent Terry Grier alleging “disenfranchisement” and wanting to know why so few jobs funded by last year’s $1.89 billion bond to rebuild 40 schools have been awarded to African-American-owned firms, reports Hair Balls: “Only two percent of the monies assigned have gone to the six [Houston-area] architectural firms run solely by African-American owners,” says Jeff Balke. “According to the letter, it appears that none of the six firms in question were even interviewed for projects pertaining to the four traditionally African-American high schools being rebuilt,” one of which is Yates High School, shown here. Adds HNOMA veep Anzilla Gilmore: “In the 2007 Bond, all of these firms got work, so we assumed that with a Bond this big, these guys shouldn’t have any issues. . . . They just need the chance, and if they don’t get the chance, they should be told why.” [HISD; Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HISD

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Houston Architects
05/30/13 2:30pm

Going Back to the Near Northside School on the Hill

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Near Northside, New Construction, Public Buildings, Renovations
8 Comments

Overlooking Hogg Park and White Oak Bayou, the old Robert E. Lee Elementary school is being renovated into a community center for the Near Northside. The school was designed by Alfred C. Finn and dates to 1919 and 1920, though it’s been vacant in this historic district since 2002. Architecture firm PGAL is preserving 3 of the building’s walls and decorative geegaws as well as the arched entryway that faces South St.; new space for what’s been named the Leonel J. Castillo Community Center is being built out the back, as this photo shows.

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