Learning Curves

Educational building market continues climbing up

The education market remains strong throughout Texas, with school districts and university systems applying sustainable strategies and adopting LEED principles..

By Debra Wood

SHW Group of Dallas designed the Carl Wunsche Senior High School for Spring ISD, near Houston, with open spaces that can be modified.

Continued population growth is fueling a need for more K-12 and college educational facilities in Texas, and districts and universities increasingly are asking for more environmentally friendly buildings.

“[Education] continues to be a hot market,” says Craig S. Reynolds, managing principal with BRW Architects of Dallas. “We see school districts trying to catch up with demand for space all across the state.”

Daniel L. Boggio, president/CEO of PBK architects in Houston, says that Texas gains 80,000 net new students annually.

“It’s booming,” adds Rayce Boyter, principal with SHW Group, education architects in Houston and Dallas. “There’s construction of new facilities and upgrading of existing.”

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Keith Anderson, director of design for WRA Architects of Dallas, says that 2007 has been one of his firm’s busiest years for school design, and the work shows no signs of abating, with older suburbs becoming more densely populated and outlying areas spreading quickly.

For example, WRA designed a 90,000-sq-ft middle school for the Sunnyvale Independent School District in Sunnyvale, which is just east of Dallas. It was built by Gallagher Construction Services of Plano.

“Most of construction dollars are going to new schools, not modular buildings and not renovations,” adds John Go, vice president and client executive at Linbeck of Houston. “We also have school choice. We have charter schools and more emphasis on private schools due to vouchers.”

Linbeck serves as the program manager, project manager and construction manager to build new educational facilities in the Houston area for KIPP Houston and YES Prep Public Schools of Houston. KIPP plans 41 more facilities during the next 10 years, with Shine Elementary under way now. Go says he expects one more KIPP school to begin in 2007 and four to break ground in 2008. The company recently completed a school for Yes Prep.

Thos. S. Byrne General Contractors is wrapping up construction on the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.

Higher education Population growth carries over to colleges and universities.
“The entire demographic is pushing through the system into higher education,” Boggio says. “You’re going to see a lot of construction in higher education in the next 10 to 15 years.”

Chris Peck, vice president of the Texas division of McCarthy Building Co. of Addison, says the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems have significant construction activity ongoing on all campuses. McCarthy is building a $25 million-plus, 75,000-sq-ft, four-story research laboratory for the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas.

Don Hensley, partner in charge of higher education for SHW Group, sees more competition among colleges and universities for students. He says the schools are viewing students as clients, which is prompting student-life projects such as recreation centers and student unions.

An $11 million, 90,000-sq-ft Learning Hub the company designed for the Houston Community College System’s Northeast Campus will contain tutoring space, financial aid, a coffee shop and other spaces for students to congregate. JE Dunn Construction Group’s Houston office is building the three-story structure.

Linbeck has begun two residential colleges at Rice University in Houston. The $90 million project will add 600 units, food service and meeting space. Both jobs are scheduled for completion in 2009. 

SHW’s Hensley adds that universities are proceeding with medical and nursing education and research projects. At the University of Texas at Brownsville, his firm is designing a $21 million, 60,000-sq-ft biomedical research center, which will include a home for the school’s nursing program.

“We’re seeing pretty steady market growth, mainly because of the demand brought on by homeland security, as well as the increase in technology,” adds Tim Hess, director of preconstruction services with the Southwest District of Hensel Phelps Construction Co. in Austin. He says homeland security generates demand for biomedical and antiterrorism research.

“We’re also seeing universities spend more money to enhance existing facilities to have a greater draw for more sophisticated professors and researchers,” Hess says. “There’s a domino affect. A greater faculty means a greater student population and more research money.”

Hensel Phelps is the contractor for a $161.5 million, 393,000-sq-ft Research Park Complex for the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. The project, which recently broke ground, will house stem-cell research and neuroscience laboratories and a dental school. The company expects to break ground in February on an engineering research laboratory for the University of Texas in Arlington.

Renovations and magnets While many K-12 districts are dealing with population increases, some districts, such as Dallas, are replacing obsolete schools, BRW’s Reynolds says.

PBK’s Boggio adds that many of the current buildings that came online in the 1950s and 1960s and do not meet current health and safety codes.

In addition, the need for voice and data technology, especially wireless capabilities, pushes some schools to renovate, while others need to upgrade HVAC systems, McCarthy’s Peck says.

Thos. S. Byrne General Contractors of Fort Worth is renovating and building a 69,000-sq-ft addition to the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, which will open next month. The original school, built in 1922, served African-American students.

The building sits in the city’s Arts District, and community support led to its rehabilitation. The $55 million project is a public-private partnership between the Dallas ISD, which contributed $23 million in bond money, and the school’s Advisory Board, a nonprofit organization, which has raised $32 million for the school.

The building will be airy and bright, with a dance studio and music room. While working in the original building, contractors discovered old transom windows that will allow light into the hallways.

Meanwhile, magnet schools, with curriculum focused on certain career tracks, are gaining in popularity, says Eric Horstman, vice president of Corgan Associates of Dallas.

The emphasis is on media at the R.L. Turner High School, designed by Corgan for the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. It includes a television studio and control room.

After participating with the district in a visioning process to plan for future needs, SHW Group designed the Carl Wunsche Senior High School for the Spring ISD to accommodate three career academies: legal, business and child studies; technology; and medical and biological studies. Open spaces can be modified to teach different courses.

Jennifer Henrikson, a principal with SHW Group, says districts are starting to align high school and middle school curriculums, again creating a need for flexible space that allows the schools to respond to market changes.

Bigger buildings, smaller settings Larger schools are more efficient to operate because a greater number of students share common areas, such as cafeterias and gymnasiums, Boggio says. But to enhance education and avoid problems, the districts ask designers to break the schools into smaller learning communities.

For the Humble ISD north of Houston, PBK divided the space for Atascocita High School’s 2,400 students into six sections with 400 students each. The district has now asked PBK to design a second school, using the same formula.

PBK has designed an Educational Village for Clear Creek ISD in League City. Five-thousand students from an elementary, middle and high school will share a cafeteria and outdoor educational spaces. Again, the high school will be split into small learning communities.

One element that’s not growing is libraries. With computer stations in every classroom and some districts foregoing textbooks for notebook computers, districts are downsizing libraries, WRA’s Anderson says. Laptops also eliminate the need for lockers to hold books, freeing up more space. 

On the other hand, charter schools, such as those Linbeck is building for KIPP, tend to be one-third to one-half the size of public schools, Go says, adding that charter and private operators are requesting sustainable features.

Greener schools More and more schools are requesting sustainable features. 

SHW Group designed and Tellepsen Builders of Houston built West Brazos Junior High of Columbia, the first LEED-certified public K-12 school in Texas, for the Brazoria Independent School District.

The $9.5 million, 92,000-sq-ft school features a reflective roof, locally produced and recycled building materials, daylighting and low-flow plumbing fixtures. The sustainable features were incorporated without incurring additional expense.

“Good design doesn’t cost more money,” SHW Group’s Boyter says. “With LEED, there is a little extra cost with the commissioning process. But without that there is no major difference in cost of construction.”

PBK’s Boggio agrees there is an increased emphasis on greener technologies, but he says districts are not asking for LEED certification.

“That involves extra administration fees as well as construction techniques that maybe aren’t the wisest use of money for a school district, but they are asking us to adhere to LEED principles and do the no-cost and low-cost items,” he adds.

Patrick Glenn, an associate and K-12 market sector manager for Texas for Perkins+Will architects in Dallas, counters that some districts find value in certification, saying it helps with teacher recruitment and serves as a magnet for children moving into the community.

“They can use a school as a teaching tool about sustainable strategies,” Glenn says.

Perkins+Will designed the 175,000-sq-ft, LEED-registered Hector Garcia Middle School for the Dallas ISD, built by Satterfield & Pontikes Construction of Houston. The level of certification has not been decided. The school features motion detectors to turn off lights when no one is in a room, waterless urinals and daylight harvesting, orienting windows to take advantage of indirect light.

“Natural light helps students’ attention span, and [they] focus better,” Glenn says. “Students perform about 20% better in classrooms with natural daylight.” 

Pfluger Associates Architects in San Antonio designed the $75 million Boerne Champion High School in Boerne to include a water harvesting system that collects rainwater and HVAC condensation, sun-shaded windows, reuse of fly ash in the concrete and sophisticated HCAC and lighting controls.

“We utilized the storm-sewer system, storing water within the storm sewer,” says Kent Nieman, a principal with Pfluger.

Despite the sustainable features, the Boerne Independent School District decided against applying for LEED certification, due to extra costs involved, Nieman says.

A creek runs through the site. Nieman placed a playfield in the middle of the 100-year floodplain and designed a bridge to get students off the “island” in rainy weather. Joeris General Contractors of San Antonio is building the school, with completion expected in April.

“It’s a school bucking the cost trend,” Nieman says. “It’s running about $20 to $30 per sq ft less than other high schools. We went out on a limb with construction techniques, using a great amount of structural tilt-up concrete.”

Pfluger also designed the Gus Garcia Middle School for the Austin ISD. It features fluorescent light fixtures, natural daylighting, a reflective roof and on-site stormwater filtration and retention.

Energy smarts Legislation is also giving districts energy-conservation incentives. Texas Senate Bill 12, passed during the last session, sets energy standards for schools and requires districts to decrease electric consumption by 5% per year for six years, says Horstsman, who calls schools ideal clients for sustainable design.

“Schools care about energy costs, the initial costs and how easy the systems are to maintain,” Corgan Associates’ Horstman says. “Anything they save on maintenance and operation, they can put into classroom instruction.”

Corgan designed C.F. Brewer High School for the White Settlement ISD in Fort Worth. Lincoln Builders of Fort Worth should wrap up construction by June. The $73 million, 2,400-student capacity school features exterior sunshades; energy-saving motion sensors for lights; four onsite wells for irrigation; and a geothermal, ground-source heat pump system, which should lower electrical use by 20 to 30% compared to a normal system.

Reynolds notes a greater interest in sustainable design in the college market. BRW recently designed the three-story, 60,000-sq-ft Texas Transportation Institute Headquarters and Research Building for Texas A & M University at College Station. The school aims for a LEED silver rating. The college began soliciting construction bids in late summer.

SHW Group’s $29 million, 120,000-sq-ft, three-story Science and Academic Center for the Tarrant County College District’s Southeast campus in Fort Worth is aiming for LEED silver. It features high-performance glazing to bring in natural light. The top two floors cantilever out to create shade and an outdoor hallway.

“Whether our clients are seeking LEED certification or just wanting to see sustainable practices, I rarely get a request for qualifications when we are not asked to provide qualifications with regard to sustainable strategies,” SHW’s Hensley says. “It’s definitely a driver.”