Phoenix Rising

New High Schools Sprout In Phoenix Desert

by Scott Blair

The Phoenix metropolitan area continuously faces population growth year after year. While much of the region's infrastructure and services struggle to keep pace with growth, public schools are one of the most visible.

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This year, several major high schools open to students, while others are in planning or under construction. This roundup will spotlight several of the most prominent projects.

The Coronado High School campus is undergoing a two-phase construction project to replace most of the existing structures as part of a successful 2004 school bond for the Scottsdale Unified School District.

"That school really needed a facelift, and the facility they are going to have is night and day to what they had before," said Bryan Dunn, preconstruction manager for the Phoenix office of contractor Adolfson & Peterson.

The first phase began in June of last year and was turned over to the school district in August upon completion. It encompassed 165,346 sq. ft. of classroom and administration space, along with a new central plant. Once school let out for summer, phase two began with the demolition of existing campus structures and the construction of 156,346 sq. ft. of new classrooms and an auditorium.

"We were under very heavy time constraints because while we were building this classroom building, we were demo-ing about 80 percent of the campus," Dunn said. "From a scheduling standpoint, to get that classroom completed, it took having everyone on the same page from the beginning: no matter what, the building had to be finished - there just wasn't another option."

The new campus will include several key outdoor spaces, including an outdoor dining area and a courtyard. The old layout included many areas where the administration couldn't see students which created security concerns. "It was a maze," said Brett Hobza, design architect on the project with the Phoenix office of DLR Group. "Our design has a big open courtyard where the principal's office overlooks, and they can see virtually everything the students are doing. It's a really big departure from the 1960's (when the original campus was built)."

However, some existing elements will remain or be re-used. A 20-ft. x 26-ft. ceramic tile mural featuring an abstract musical motif was taken down and preserved from the old auditorium, and will be reassembled on the exterior of the new one.

"Another key thing was to repeat the folded plate roof, which was pretty much a trademark of the campus," Hobza said. "They really appreciated our attempt to tie in something that is an icon on that campus to the new construction."

The central plant is being replaced as part of the school district's goal to reduce energy and maintenance costs, according to Hobza. Other efficiency improvements include energy-efficient glazing and improved site orientation.

Most of the new structures are masonry, though during the preconstruction phase the large classroom building was switched to structural steel. ""We were able to save about two months out of the schedule which actually made it possible to reach the end dates that we needed," Dunn said. "We ran the cost model with standard CMU and we couldn't have gotten the building done in time."

The team was able to keep the masonry look, however, by using a masonry veneer over a steel-framed exterior wall system, Hobza said.

Adolfson & Peterson and DLR Group are also constructing the $57 million New Comprehensive High School in Laveen, Ariz. The Phoenix Union School District project features nine buildings on a 55-acre site just a few miles from the new Cesar Chavez High School.

The 304,000-sq.-ft. campus is being designed around the district's philosophy of a small learning community environment, where the school's 2,500 students are split into four separate schools of approximately 625 students, each with its own building and identity. They are aligned along a winding, street-like outdoor space. "Each building has a glass wall that looks out to this circulation spine," said Thomas Patrick O'Neil, principal in charge of the project with DLR Group. "You can see the identity of each community's character from the outside, but from the inside it is like eyes on the street."

One of the challenges was to bring all of the masonry buildings out of the ground at the same time. "There's no one in town that has enough manpower to cover nine buildings at one time, so the sequencing becomes a challenge on how to phase between the buildings to keep the crews working as efficiently as possible and still make your schedule," said Brock Huttenmeyer, preconstruction director with Adolfson & Peterson. "We extensively qualified subcontractors at bidding time to make sure they had the manpower required, and we did extensive scheduling prior to bid."

DLR Group incorporated student and administration feedback in several key aspects of the project, including the library. "Students don't go to a library to pull a book off the shelf like they did in year's past," O'Neil said. "So to encourage the use of the library, we provided the backdrop of a café. We wanted the library to become not only symbolic, but a very important part of the campus."

The school will also feature a central plant with a four-pipe mechanical system in accordance with the school district's quality standards.

Another of the district's schools, Camelback High School, will also feature a new four-pipe system central plant as part of its $27 million, 175,000-sq.-ft. classroom replacement and addition.

Camelback High School was split into three phases. The first was a kitchen remodel completed last summer. Phase two began August 2005 with the demolition of a parking lot and the construction of the three-story, 102,000-sq.-ft. East Academic Building. As that phase finished up in August, the year-long third phase began with demolition of several old buildings and the construction of a new 68,000-sq.-ft. classroom and library building on the northeast corner of the campus.

"School has been in session during the project," said project engineer Jason Wiley with Phoenix-based contractor D.L. Withers Construction. "We worked with the school and did a weekly broadcast with them to give students an update on construction as a necessity for safety."

Camelback's design also uses the small school concept with 2,400 students split into groups of roughly 700.

Each small school has its own separate color scheme as well as separate courtyards, commons areas and administrative offices. "We are trying to make it so the students will like being there, with the color schemes and some areas that they will enjoy rather than just walking into a building with corridors," said Michael Rhodes, project manager with Architectural Resource Team, the Phoenix-based architect on the project. It is designed to give the students a sense of space and identity, which will hopefully cut down on vandalism and graffiti, Rhodes added.

Natural lighting is used throughout the new buildings. The height of each commons area extends up the full three stories, with a skylight above and ample glazing looking out onto the courtyards.

"There have been three school principals since we started, and each one has their own idea of what they want in the new building," Wiley said. "I've really enjoyed working with the administration and watching what they want and being able to be a part of delivering it."

Key Players
Camelback High School
Architect: Architectural Resource Team
GC: DL Withers Construction
Coronado High School
Architect: DLR Group
GC: Adolfson & Peterson
New Comprehensive
Architect: DLR Group
GC: Adolfson & Peterson

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