BAYTOWN, Texas—The Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the district’s new Lee High School Fine Arts building. The modern arts educational building was realized following years of planning for its construction.

The Lee High School Fine Arts building will be home to the district’s band, choir, orchestra and dance programs. In addition to rehearsal and performance spaces, the fine arts building will also allow for students and teachers to make use of ample meeting areas, as well as group events.

“Giving [students] a larger, stand-alone building where every student interested in fine arts can call home was a dream that, with the support of the Board, Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, community, business sponsors and Lee High School alumni, we were able to fulfill,” Dr. Randal O’Brien, GCCISD superintendent, said at the unveiling—which was followed by a tour of the new facility for select guests.

The fine arts building was realized by the planning, engineering and program management firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), who also served as GCCISD’s 2019 bond program manager.

“The new fine arts facility for Lee High School is a huge milestone for the growth and expansion Goose Creek CISD has experienced over the last decade,” JP Grom, vice president at LAN, said at the unveiling.

LAN worked in combination with general contractor Marshall Construction and Pfluger Architects on the facility.

In a subsequent statement sent to School Construction News LAN’s Clement A. Medina, associate and program manager at LAN, said that ongoing economic concerns with raw materials also threatened to up the cost of the fine arts building, but he and his colleagues found ways to address these issues.

“As prices of construction materials climbed to record highs and equipment lead times stretched from months to years, the project team worked diligently to keep the project within budget and on schedule,” Medina said.

Goose Creek CISD currently encompasses 24,000 students in its area of 134 square miles, and is the single largest employer within the district’s boundaries. It is one of the fastest-growing districts in Texas, with more than 2,000 additional students projected to be educated there in the next decade. This tremendous growth requires additional resources, just one of which is the Lee High School Fine Arts building.

“The students and staff associated with these fine arts programs put long hours into learning, rehearsing and polishing, often in inclement weather,” Tiffany Guy, president of the Goose Creek CISD Board of Trustees, said during the ribbon-cutting event. “They are learning skills they will use throughout their lives, such as time management and teamwork as they reap the rewards of taking pride in a job well done.”

LAN falls under the umbrella of the LEO A DALY architectural brand.

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STAFFORD, Texas—After years in the planning, the time has come to reap the benefits of the Stafford Municipal School District’s (SMSD) new agriculture building. The half-decade-long dream became a reality recently as part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the new building, which is located at 1001 Constitution Ave.

The $1 million, 3,000-square-foot agricultural building, designed by Smith & Company Architects, will teach students how to raise and care for farm animals. The high school students will then take said animals to competitions such as the Fort Bend County Fair and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

As designed by Smith & Company, the agricultural building consists of concrete blocks topped with a metallic roof. The building contains stalls for animal care, office space, grazing areas for the cattle, as well as fans to keep the animals cool in Lone Star State heat. At these and other areas inside the building, students will take courses in not just agriculture and horticulture but also in natural resources and food management. Additionally, elementary and middle school students within SMSD will be able to observe farm animal husbandry being practiced by high school students.

The new agricultural campus replaced an older barn that stood on the same site, and which featured adjacent yards. Both the building and the yards needed to be demolished to make way for a campus access road.

Via a poll of students, the street adjacent to the new building is to be renamed Barnyard Boulevard, which was approved by the SMSD Board of Trustees.

Project manager of the new agricultural building was Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN). Victor Fleming, program manager for LAN, said that the agricultural building will be a boon to students as well as the community.

“The new facility is great for the District’s Agricultural Science program and our community,” Fleming said in a recent statement. “It will allow students the opportunity to apply skills and concepts they are learning in the classroom in a real-world setting.”

Added SMSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Bostic: “It’s a gift and reality to have an expanded and upgraded building. This is truly a benefit for our students.”

Deborah Nordt, SMSD’s director of college and career, said that agricultural programs allow students to develop patience and responsibility that can be translated later into the job market.

“In addition to feeding and caring for animals, through Animal Science projects, students learn about animal health, nutrition, and physiology,” she said.

In a follow-up statement emailed to School Construction News, LAN Vice President JP Grom said, “One of things that was always top of mind during construction was that work was being completed on an occupied campus. As always, work had to be done safely and efficiently—the facility also had to be restored quickly so students could move their project animals back to showcase them.”

LAN, which is based in Houston, falls under the umbrella of the LEO A DALY banner, and employs over 300 people throughout the United States. LAN has several times been ranked as one of the “Top 100 A/E Firms” by Engineering News-Record.

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HOUSTON—Tomball Independent School District (ISD) and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), the district’s program manager, celebrated the groundbreaking of its new junior high school, elementary school and football stadium on May 29.

Tomball ISD—one of the fastest-growing districts in Texas—currently enrolls about 15,000 students and estimates it will have an additional 4,500 students by 2021. To accommodate this rapid growth voters approved a $275 million bond referendum, known as Bond 2017, , in November 2017.

The bond package included funds for several projects, including a new elementary school, a new junior high school, an expansion project at Tomball Memorial High School to add classrooms, a new football stadium, improvements to the baseball and softball fields, a new swim training facility, and an agricultural science facility. Other improvements include instructional technology such as laptops, Chromebooks, and document cameras as well as upgrades in the district technology infrastructure. The bond package will also allow Tomball ISD to upgrade its fleet of school buses.

“The groundbreaking of the three new facilities takes Tomball ISD one step closer to meeting its needs for the next 50 to 75 years,” said JP Grom, AIA, LAN’s vice president. “The new facilities will provide Tomball’s students the environment and infrastructure needed to succeed in the 21st century.”

The 232,000-square-foot junior high school will relieve Willow Wood Junior High School, which currently uses portable buildings as classrooms. The $43.2 million junior high school, which is scheduled for completion in fall 2021, will accommodate 900 students. The 117,000 square-foot elementary school will relieve Wildwood Elementary School, which currently uses portable buildings to teach students. The $21.1 million elementary school, which will accommodate 675 students, will be completed in fall 2020. The district’s $42.2 million new football stadium, which is scheduled to be completed in fall 2020, will seat 10,000 spectators and 3,000 parking spaces. A new community facility that will be home to a conference center, sports locker/dressing rooms, athletic training and administration areas for sporting events is also included as a part of the stadium project. The current stadium has 7,500 seats and 2,000 parking spaces.

LAN is a full-service consulting firm offering planning, engineering and program management services for the nation’s heavy civil infrastructure needs.

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