Planning

The original high school was constructed in the 1950s and then modified in the 1980s. A Master Plan and Facility Assessment concluded that the demolition of the 40-year-old Cafeteria and Art Building was justified. This project included the replacement of those facilities to create a new Student Dining Commons, Art Classrooms along with providing a new Culinary Arts Classroom and Lab. This project is part of a 3-Bond Cycle replacement plan to update the entire High School campus.

Preserving and Growing a Community Culture. This replacement school with an owl mascot—known as the “School in the Trees”—shares its site with a city park and embraces sustainable, biophilic design to further reinforce its setting in nature. With clearly stated project requirements and a strong existing cultural foundation, the new school environment delivers operational value and state-of-the-art learning spaces, allowing each student the opportunity to find their own unique path to knowledge.

In addition to accommodating rapid growth, the renovations and additions to the high school became opportunities to enrich and reinforce community culture, advance their educational model, and equip students for success. After nearly 40 years of reactive facility improvements, the existing 300,000 SF school was disjointed buildings, wings, and additions. Leveraging the community’s desire to remain a one high school district, the school has become a point of pride in a close-knit community.

Build a brand new elementary school to serve the community.

This new Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center provides students with access to a diverse range of in-demand careers—including health professionals, machinists, and game designers—all together under one roof. Designed to foster integration among the varied educational offerings, the opportunity this CTE center provides lies at the intersections: synergies created by these programs collaborating that will, in turn, forecast the jobs these students will encounter upon graduation.

The oldest campus in this district sits on just 27.2 acres. It’s the smallest district site, landlocked, houses not one but four high schools with four unique educational programs, and has generations of active alumni attached to the campus as they knew it. After a decade of work on this occupied campus, the built environment was maximized with functional spaces serving each campus’s needs while maintaining the original campus’s emotional and physical historical value.

This neighborhood elementary school has a campus-wide focus on literacy and serves three district special ed programs. Like its neighborhood, it has some age on it, but innovative thinking activated a hidden treasure. By rehabilitating a dark, dank concrete area with a district grant, they created an inclusive, activity-based, open-air learning environment. Equipment designed for multisensory learning enhances social, emotional, and academic discovery for children of all ages and abilities.

A new complex with a separate 8,000 SF, two-story process training unit, 35 custom interior labs (including a multifunctional glass pilot lab), 20 interactive classrooms, 4 custom workstations, advanced control rooms, conference, training, and assembly spaces. Students have access to hands-on training experiences as they work toward associate degrees and industry certifications.

This project involved the addition of a new Fine Arts Center at an existing high school, where tragic violence necessitated the closure and encapsulation of the school’s existing art classrooms and corridors.

The district is in the petrochemical corridor in unincorporated Houston. It serves a richly diverse population. Known for industry, it traditionally has not been recognized for its schools. As a tight-knit community, the replacement of their high school (a 50-year-old building) on a new site presented bold opportunities. The rebirth of the high school was deeply embraced. It is iconic, a destination for personalized learning, and a symbol that all students deserve high-quality education.