Southern Nevada's escalating real estate prices coupled with a shortage of available land has forced the Clark County School District to create a new space-saving school design.

JMA Architecture Studios of Las Vegas is the prototype architect for the Howard E. Hollingsworth Elementary School, at 1776 East Ogden Ave. in Las Vegas. The $14.5 million facility consumes only one-third the amount of property otherwise used for school construction . It's the first school of its kind to use the new compressed and vertical design.

The two-story, 78,000-sq.-ft. building on 4.5 acres near Fremont and Bruce streets has a 106-car underground parking garage. Traditionally, the district has built single-level elementary schools on 12.5-acre plots.

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By going up, instead of out, the school can still accommodate the same number of pupils and faculty but on less land.

"It's an urban solution for an urban area," said John Lopeman, vice president of educational facilities at JMA Architecture Studios. "Our challenge was to figure out how to fit the same number of students in a space roughly a third that size."

Despite its compact space, the steel-framed, block masonry school still manages to fit in most of the recreational amenities found at other district facilities, including four basketball and eight tetherball courts, one softball field and three play structures.
Inside, there are 40 classrooms, an auditorium, cafeteria, library, and administrative offices.

Saving land isn't the same as saving money, however. The new Hollingworth Eelementary Sschool has cost $13- per- sq.- ft. more to build than similar facilities of its kind.

"The two-story school is more expensive due the additional concrete and steel used, plus the elevators, mechanical systems and ADA compliance," said Fred C. Smith, the district's director of construction. "A lack of land, especially in the developed inner city, drove us to design the two-story prototype."

The school is named after Howard Hollingworth, a 50-year staple of the Clark County School District, who served as teacher, principal and school board member. It opened to 900 students on Aug. 25.

Martin-Harris Construction was the general contractor and Carter Burgess performed the engineering.

Its 11-month construction had a series of special requirements. The foundation, for instance, needed 100 drilled pilings rather the normal spread footings due to the vertical building's extra weight, adding $1 million to the cost. Also, the soil was contaminated with diesel fuel and needed de-watering.

"This will be most expensive elementary school that we have ever built," Smith said. "There was no other parcel of land that we could acquire in that area without a lengthy and costly acquisition process."

The district is one of the county's largest landowners with 7,700 acres in its portfolio, including Bureau of Land Management leases. It currently has $150 million set aside, to purchase new property, but finding obtainable real estate in 10- to 40-acre plots is becoming increasingly difficult.

"Available land, if you can find it, is scarce," said Dusty Dickens, the district's director of realty. "Between the last three bond issues, we have seen the cost of land triple. Initially, we averaged $60,000 an acre, but now the average cost is more like $80,000 to $90,000 an acre."

While the district partners with builders and government agencies to purchase property when possible, it still plans to reuse the new prototype. The new design will next be used at the Linda Rankin Givens Elementary School in northwest Las Vegas.

The district also has a new two-story middle school prototype being designed by Welles Pugsley Architects of Las Vegas, which will reduce the amount of land used by half.

"The fact is, urban schools just cost more," Lopeman said. "The district hasn't done that many urban projects and wasn't entirely prepared for the price tag."

Regardless, the new elementary school is thoroughly state-of-the-art. It has everything from a high-tech computer network to eco-friendly lighting systems to synthetic grass inside the kindergarten classrooms.

The building also will serve as a much-needed community center for the surrounding area.

"I'm proud to have such a fine school located in east Las Vegas," said City Council member Gary Reese. "The school district was really innovative in building this school on a small parcel of land while still being able to serve so many children."