Texas District Awards Construction Contract for New Elementary School

The Friendswood Independent School District in Friendswood, Texas, is ready to begin construction on a new elementary school nearly two years after the original bond was approved. The district’s board of trustees selected Satterfield & Pontikes Construction as the project’s construction manager at its board workshop meeting on Monday, Feb. 28.

The facility will serve as a new home for the existing Cline Elementary School. The project comes with a $36-million budget to come from the $127-million bond approved by voters in November 2020.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for March 11, and the project is scheduled for completion in time to open to students for the 2023–24 academic year. The new school’s architect, PBK Architects, has been working to make sure that supply chain issues will not cause any delays in construction.

“It is a nonnegotiable that kids are coming in August,” said PBK Architects partner Melissa Turnbaugh.

The PBK Architects website reports that the new Cline Elementary School will serve students in grades PreK–5 and feature a centralized learning commons for both large group instruction and small reading and study nooks. Each grade level will have its own pod to provide collaboration and pull-out space for each grade. The campus will also include innovation hubs, maker spaces, art and music classrooms, a new cafeteria and new gymnasium.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • DLR Group Announces New Mid-Atlantic Higher Education Leader

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has promoted Principal Shawn Gaither, AIA, LEED AP, to the role of higher education leader in the Mid-Atlantic, according to a news release. Gaither has served with the firm for more than 20 years, most recently as the national higher education business development leader.

  • Florida Gulf Coast University Selects Builder for New Academic Building

    Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Fla., recently announced that it has selected development and construction firm Skanska to build a new academic and health sciences building, according to a news release. Marieb Hall South will become the campus’ largest academic building at 158,040 square feet.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Photo courtesy of Kraus-Anderson

    Concordia College Completes Memorial Auditorium Renovations

    Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., recently completed a $2.5-million renovation project to Memorial Auditorium, a news release reports. The college partnered with Kraus-Anderson for the project’s construction and ICON Architectural Group for its design.