Reading, Writing and Building Practiced on College Campuses

New buildings go up from Houston, Arlington and Irving to rural regions; also, elementary and high schools get renovations, expansions

Houston Community College Finishes First Phase of Development Project

A rendering shows Houston Community College’s Northeast Campus, which is undergoing an expansion led by Houston design firm Llewelyn-Davies Sahni.

As part of a system-wide campus expansion initiative, the Houston Community College System brought in Houston-based architecture and urban design firm Llewelyn-Davies Sahni to implement major campus infrastructure development at two campuses.

Major construction milestones in the initial phase were completed at HCC’s Northeast College/Northeast Campus and Southwest College/Stafford Campus recently.

The Northeast Campus infrastructure plan will utilize 139 acres and can accommodate future changes. Recently completed construction includes vehicle and pedestrian infrastructure, parking facilities, landscape/hardscape, roadway extensions, campus lighting, IT infrastructure, stormwater detention and a central-plant facility.

The campus includes a public safety facility, truck driving school, science and technology building and a new learning “HUB” building. The Northeast Campus serves approximately 2,000 students. The plan allows the campus to increase up to a 20,000-student capacity.

The Southwest Campus infrastructure plan calls for utilizing 103 acres with flexibility to accommodate future changes. Recently completed construction includes the Learning HUB & Science Building, parking facilities, landscape/hardscape, campus lighting, IT infrastructure, a feature pond and overhead electrical relocation.

The project is designed to accommodate student body growth through 2020.

LDS is providing planning, urban design, infrastructure design and land acquisition support, among others, to HCC as part of an ongoing $480-million-plus capital improvement program.

First Phase of Paris Greenville Campus Master Plan Opens

The first facility on Paris Junior College’s new campus in Greenville, the first in the college’s multi-phase campus plan on a 172-acre tract, was completed. The new $13 million, 42,000-sq-ft multipurpose academic building was designed by Dallas-based SHW Group and built by Dallas-based Charter Builders.

The site of the campus was recently retired from the agricultural business and is adjacent to several community amenities. The new two-story facility serves up to 2,500 students and contains flexible, technology-enabled classrooms, a science lab, a computer lab, a library, administrative offices and a large meeting room that can also be used as a classroom.

Located on land just west of Greenville High School at 6500 Monty Stratton Blvd., the campus master plan considered identity and sense of place for the first building and subsequent buildings, providing a visual gateway to Greenville from the freeway.

The main goal was to provide a long-range, sustainable plan for a campus of up to 7,000 students while ensuring the short-term goal of developing a multipurpose educational building to meet current needs. The master plan helped the college locate the first building, designed to be converted to a classroom building once support functions are located in new facilities.

Additional planning and design goals include restoration of the site to a more natural state, including integration of an existing flood plain and reintroduction of native plant species; incorporation of indoor and outdoor learning environments to enhance the landscape and provide a more dynamic beginning to the campus; planning of the flexible, technology-enabled classroom building on a classroom-sized module to allow easy, inexpensive conversion to a classroom building in later phases of the plan; and collaboration with the city of Greenville and other public entities to provide for commercial growth, a gateway to the city and future community projects.

Dallas County Satellite Campus in Irving Completed

Cadence McShane recently completed the 33,278-sq-ft Northlake College - South Campus for the Dallas County Community College District.

Dallas-based Cadence McShane Construction Co. completed the 33,278-sq-ft Northlake College - South Campus construction assignment for Dallas County Community College District. The two-story educational facility is located on an 11.72-acre site in Irving and serves as a satellite facility.

The construction assignment included the completion of 15 classrooms, three contemporary computer labs, catering facilities, a GED testing suite, science lab, library and administrative areas. Additional amenities include study lounges, a law enforcement office, vending areas and a large multipurpose room. The assignment included sitework, landscaping and the construction of 225 parking spaces.

The college facility features a masonry and stone exterior.

F&S Partners of Dallas provided the architectural services.

Tarrant County College Campus Seeks LEED Certification for Project

With design complete, Tarrant County College District’s Southeast Campus in Arlington plans to seek LEED-gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the new three-story, 120,000-sq-ft Science and Academic Building.

Plano-based SHW Group is serving as the project architect and Turner Construction Co.’s Dallas office is serving as the general contractor.

With a targeted completion date of late 2010, the new building will have a new student lecture hall to accommodate up to 200 students as well as student gathering areas, general purpose classrooms, back-to-back teaching science laboratories, a common prep area that will be shared by all teaching groups, and a large, three-story atrium space that will offer flexible seating for students to gather between classes.

The building is an addition to TCCD’s Southeast Campus. It was designed to create a new identity for the campus and serve as a destination for commuter students.

Following TCCD’s master plan, the multi-building institution frames a new campus axis and science/technology corridor. The site, along an east/west axis adjacent to the original campus structure, allows for significant reduction in solar heat gain and invites large expanses of glass along the north and south facades. The glass also provides daylighting into all interior academic and student spaces.

Cadence McShane Completes 99,000 SF Elementary in Pasadena

Houston-based Cadence McShane Construction Company completed Kruse Replacement Elementary School in the Pasadena Independent School District. The school is a single-story, 99,000-sq-ft facility called Kruse Elementary School. It features 44 classrooms, 17 science laboratories, a gymnasium with an integrated stage area, library, kitchen/cafeteria and administrative areas. Cadence McShane completed extensive landscaping throughout the school property as well as all site-work requirements.

The school’s completion marks one of the final construction projects as part of the district’s 2004 Bond Program. Houston-based Dansby and Miller Architects provided the architectural services for the project.

Plano ISD Starts 76,000 SF Addition, Renovation at Vines High School

Dallas-based Cadence McShane Construction Co. was recently awarded a contract for the 75,715-sq-ft addition and renovation assignment at Vines High School in the Plano Independent School District.

The school is on a 17-acre site located at 15th Street and Highedge Drive in Plano. The project will encompass 50,000 sq ft of high-tech updates to the school, including the renovation of the existing administrative and counselor offices, as well as improvements to the music and band areas.

The assignment also includes a 25,715-sq-ft, two-story addition, featuring elevator service, for the school’s new science wing. Construction began in late July with completion slated for November 2010.

The project is part of the Plano ISD’s 2008 Bond Program, which voters passed in last year. It provides $490 million for construction, renovation and technology initiatives.

Dallas-based Corgan Associates Inc. will provide architectural services for this project.

White Rock Commercial’s West Pointe Center Opens in Houston

Cadence McShane completed the three-story, 170,823-sq-ft West Pointe Center in Houston.

Houston-based Cadence McShane Construction Co. completed the three-story, 170,823-sq-ft West Pointe Center on behalf of developer White Rock Commercial. The Class A building is located on a 24.8-acre site in Houston’s Northwest Corridor. The property offers access and visibility from Beltway 8 and signage opportunities to tenants.

Cadence McShane constructed West Pointe Center to accommodate a wide range of users by incorporating floor plates of 55,455 sq ft. A number of green building construction techniques were used including recycling construction waste, utilizing regional materials and implementing an efficient plumbing system that will result in a 22% reduction of water use. Additionally, Cadence McShane provided the infrastructure for a building-wide tenant recycling system.

McShane Development Forms Alliance with Harrison Street

McShane Development Co.’s Health Care Division formed a long-term strategic alliance between McShane Development Co. and Chicago-based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC with an initial collaboration focusing on the development of a two-building, 120,000-sq-ft medical office portfolio.

The two firms will collaborate on opportunities to develop health-care-related properties throughout several geographic markets. Harrison Street is a real estate private equity firm that specializes in providing equity capital to developers and operators of specific asset classes. The initial collaboration between the two firms will support ongoing development activity at McShane’s two Oak Bend medical office facilities in the Houston area. McShane is developing the 60,000-sq-ft, two-story Oak Bend Doctors Center – Grand Parkway in Fort Bend County. The firm is preparing to break ground on the 60,000-sq-ft, three-story OakBend Doctors Center – Southwest Freeway in Richmond. The projects will be co-developed under the McShane/Harrison Street alliance.

Trinity River Project’s 50-Ton Steel Bridge Pieces Make Big Entrance

A noticeable milestone recently marked progress on the $2-billion public works project known as The Trinity River Corridor project. It is one of the largest urban developments in the nation, stretching 20 mi through Dallas and encompassing 10,000 acres.

The project was designed with a landmark bridge, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. It will features a distinctive arch and serve as the centerpiece of the Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge that will span the Trinity River.

In late summer, two of the largest and highly anticipated pieces of steel for the bridge arrived in Dallas. The pieces, which weigh 100,000 lbs each, are part of the arch.

Each cylinder stretches 36 ft long and measures 17 ft across. A 600-ton crane lifted the two cylinders from the Continental Bridge and down into the corridor.

“Any project this big is bound to have challenges and, of course, we’ve had many and probably will have many more,” Gail Thomas, president of The Trinity Trust, told Texas Construction. “The delivery of the steel has been one [of those challenges]. It came from Italy, and it takes a long time to receive the shipment and get the steel to Dallas.”

Thomas says the weight of the enormous cylinders caused many logistical concerns. For one, they were too big to come down the main highways. The bridges they crossed on the back roads had to be tested to make sure they could handle the weight, she says.

The white steel will be used for the bridge’s central arch, which will reach 400-ft high upon completion. Pieces of the arch could begin being hoisted into place by the end of the year. Other elements include a 1,200-ft long span with miles of cable holding the bridge span in place.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is the first vehicular bridge designed by Calatrava in the United States. The bridge will eventually connect Singleton Boulevard in West Dallas across the Trinity River to Woodall Rodgers Fwy (Spur 366) in downtown Dallas.

Once built, the bridge will become Dallas’ signature landmark for the Trinity project and will replace the Continental Bridge, which will serve as the pedestrian bridge. A second Calatrava Bridge—the Margaret McDermott Bridge—will start construction at a later date.

“The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge marks the first of many to come achievements of the Trinity River project,” Thomas says. “It will draw the attention of people to Dallas and will bring their imagination back to the Trinity River.”

“We’re trying to create a place for people with a great park system along the Trinity River that will bring people together,” she adds.

The bridge is scheduled to be complete in June 2011. The completion for the entire Trinity River project is likely 2016, Thomas says.

The project is a collaborative effort by the city of Dallas, the Texas Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Houston-based Williams Bros. and Dallas-based J. D. Abrams Inc.

“There are many agencies working on this project at one time, so every agency has to be consulted with every move. That is essential and wonderful, but it is a challenge,” Thomas says.

Other plans for the project include a downtown lake, wetlands, hike-and-bike trails, a whitewater course, riding paths and nature walks through the Great Trinity Forest, Thomas says. The Trinity River Audubon Center is already completed.

Texas Children’s Hospital Tops Out Construction on West Campus

Texas Children’s Hospital topped out the hospital’s new West Campus in Houston. When completed, the facility, which is being built by Houston-based Tellepsen, will give residents in West Houston access to a pediatric hospital in their community.

Tellepsen began construction of the Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus last year on a 55-acre tract.

The hospital will include more than 500,000 sq ft of ambulatory, diagnostic, office and inpatient/outpatient facility space, along with a central utility plant. The outpatient clinic building and inpatient facility are scheduled to open in late 2010.

Tellepsen is also constructing the Texas Children’s Hospital Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, a multi-disciplinary pediatric neurological research center, in Houston’s Texas Medical Center.

Construction Starts on Baytown Apartment Complex

Shreveport-based Shreve Land Constructors LLC was awarded the contract to build The Lynn at Country Club Apartments in Baytown. The community consists of 204 garden style apartments. The property will have a resort-style pool, carports and enclosed garages. Construction began in late June.