ELGIN, Texas—Designer Pfluger Architects and general contractor Satterfield & Pontikes Construction joined officials from the Elgin Independent School District recently as they collectively toasted the groundbreaking of the new Harvest Ridge Elementary, the fourth elementary school for the Elgin ISD. Harvest Ridge Elementary will serve students from pre-K through 5th grade. Funding for the project comes from the district’s $183 million bond program, passed by voters in November 2021.

“This is such an exciting moment for the Elgin community,” Elgin ISD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jana Rueter said at the groundbreaking. “Harvest Ridge Elementary will provide a safe and nurturing environment for students to learn and grow, fostering a sense of community and collaboration. Future staff and students will benefit from the school’s overall design, which reflects Elgin ISD’s commitment to providing high-quality education for its students.”

Harvest Ridge, which will be home to 800 students, will be sited on a 13-acre plot of land the district owns in the immediate vicinity of Elgin High School. The design for the school incorporates innovative designs meant to increase learning capabilities at Harvest Ridge, and inside the classrooms will boast up-to-the-minute technology. Additionally, the elementary school will offer a music room, gym, art room, library, cafeteria and outdoor learning spaces.

Pfluger and Satterfield & Pontikes are working in conjunction with Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam, Inc. (LAN), which is acting as program manager for the district’s bond program and thus will oversee budgeting and execution of the construction and renovation work throughout the district. In addition to Harvest Ridge, LAN will be shepherding to completion an additional elementary school, upgrading Elgin High School, and making various other improvements throughout the Elgin ISD.

One of the challenges of this particular project, according to Tim Strucely, LAN Associate and Program Manager for Elgin ISD’s bond program, is that the district will be constructing the school as part of a new subdivision.

“The developer is extending the main boulevard out to and beyond the school construction site, as well as constructing all of the utility infrastructure,” Strucely said in a statement emailed to School Construction News, offering that the project “is happening in parallel with the construction of the school site. The developer built a temporary construction road to allow us to physically access the school site.”

Strucely added that he and his firm are dedicated to providing a first-class school for the Elgin ISD that will meet the community’s needs.

As currently projected, the new elementary school will open for students in the fall of 2024 for the Elgin ISD, which educates over 5,000 students in grades K through 12.

“We are excited to celebrate this investment in our community, and our children, and to see this new facility come to life,” enthused Rueter, the superintendent.

LAN, which employs nearly 400 professionals around the country, falls under the umbrella of the LEO A DALY companies, an internationally recognized engineering and architecture firm.

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BULVERDE, Tex.—International builder Skanska—which is based in Stockholm, Sweden, but operates several offices in the United States—has been hired by the Comal Independent School District to construct a $57 million new school in the far northern suburbs of San Antonio.

The contract with Comal Independent School entails an entirely from-scratch middle school.  The facility will offer a sports field, water retention and storage tank, as well as various support structures across the project site’s 40 acres of property.

The heart of the project will be the 170,000-square-foot Comal Middle School #8.  When completed, likely in the fall of 2023, Middle School #8 will be able to host over 1,000 students.  This expansion work is necessary to relieve overcrowding at other schools throughout the district.

Pfluger Architects is also on board as the architect and engineer for Comal Middle School #8.

Personnel from Skanska’s San Antonio office are now hard at work on the construction project.  The firm also works from other Lone Star State offices in Houston and Dallas.

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SAN ANTONIO—Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP), a national construction management firm and general contractor, and Northside Independent School District (ISD), Texas’ fourth-largest school district, topped out the new Marshall Law and Medical Services Magnet High School in San Antonio. The magnet program is located on the campus of Northside ISD’s oldest high school, Marshall High School, which is also undergoing significant renovations.

Representatives from AP, Northside ISD and Pfluger Architects Inc., the planning architect on the project, were in attendance as AP secured the top beam of the new home to the district’s academies of medical services, law and criminal justice, and legal government and administration.

“We’re excited to reach this milestone on our first project in San Antonio,” said Brandon Gaeke, regional manager for AP. “Construction has gone smoothly, and we’re slated to complete the project on time. We couldn’t be happier that our initial foray into this market is a project that will help young San Antonians become esteemed members of the community.”

Northside ISD awarded AP the project in June 2020, and completion is estimated for November 2021. The $22.1 million project includes the construction of the 80,000 square-foot magnet high school, new soccer and football fields, and a parking lot. AP is also renovating Marshall High School’s career and technology building and administration area.

“The project underway at Marshall High School and Marshall Law and Medical Services Magnet High School is a sign of our district’s commitment to ensuring a first-rate education for our students in state-of-the-art facilities,” said Dr. Brian Woods, superintendent for Northside ISD. “We are grateful to the voters of Northside who have made this work possible through their support of School Bond 2018.”

AP has served as construction manager or general contractor on several school district projects in Texas for Arlington ISD, Fort Worth ISD and Garland High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Other notable projects in Texas include the new PGA Headquarters in Frisco, Texas, and Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas.

Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) is a family-owned company that offers preconstruction and construction services to the commercial, education, healthcare, hospitality, industrial, multifamily, municipal, recreation and senior living market segments.

Northside ISD covers 355 square miles of urban landscape, suburban communities and rural Texas hill country. The district is comprised of 120 public schools (including seven specialized high school magnet programs and two middle school magnet programs) with over 14,000 employees.

Founded in Austin, Texas in 1973, Pfluger Architects plans and designs educational facilities, and has completed more than 450 projects totaling more than $1 billion in the last five years alone.

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