Project: Clear Lake High School Rebuild
>>> The Clear Lake High School was constructed in three phases over a three year period that began in 2015 and ended in 2018. The new high school was built at the current location of the existing high school, with portions of the construction scheduled while school was in session. The architect designed the new two story high school to fit within the current campus footprint by taking in a large majority of the open areas throughout the campus and utilizing materials that agreed with their design ideas and could be built within the tight construction schedule. The materials that were supplied and installed over the three phases included approximately 296,000 regular CMU, 10,000 decorative CMU and 437,000 king size brick. In addition, over 2,500 12”x24” Arriscraft units were installed at the new high school’s radius main entrance.
Minimal disruption to the faculty and students was important in the completion of the new school. To alleviate this concern, the students and faculty were moved into other parts of the high school and portions of the existing ninth grade center while the designated construction area was demolished and rebuilt. After each phase was completed the students and faculty were moved from the area scheduled to be renovated in the next phase into the newly constructed area.
The extended completion timeline of three years created a challenge in the production of the brick. Approximately 437,000 bricks were needed for the entire project but only 205,000 were required on the first phase. It would be difficult to store 232,000 bricks that would not be needed for one to two years, however, there was concern regarding the possible difference in color that could occur during subsequent production runs. After obtaining a commitment from our supplier to maintain the color range between different production runs, we decided to order enough to complete a phase with enough extra to reach a clean break so that the new bricks would not butt directly to the older bricks in the next phase.
The new school provides a unique and aesthetically pleasing building that will facilitate the growing needs of the school’s increasing enrollment.