West High School/Middle School
West, Texas      
Best Project

Owner: West Independent School District
Lead Design Firm/Structural Engineer: Huckabee
General Contractor: Bartlett Cocke General Contractors
Civil Engineer: Pacheco Koch
MEP Engineer: Image Engineering Group
Acoustic: BAi
Food Service: JMK Foodservice Consulting and Design
Subcontractors: American Terrazzo Co. Ltd.; Arch Signs of Texas; Architectural Division 8 Inc.; Automatic Fire Protection Inc.; Baker Drywall Fort Worth Ltd.; Balco Inc.; Bell Glass & Mirror Co. Inc.; Capitol Blind & Drapery; Coreslab Structures Inc.; Division 7; Ed Brown Distributors; Edward Don & Co.; F.L. Crane & Sons Inc.; Flooring Solutions Inc.; Global ICF Innovations Inc.; H & B Contractors Inc.; Impact Fire Services; Indoor Environmental Consultants Inc.; Irwin Seating Co.; J&C Commercial Services LLC; Johnson & Sons; Leland Collier Electric Co.; Miller Sierra Contractors Inc.; Modernfold Door & Specialties of DFW; Nellco Specialties Inc.; Overhead Door Co. of Waco; Quality Brickworks Ltd.; Rabroker AC  & Plumbing; Red & White Greenery Inc.; Shahan & Son Ltd.; Sheldon Laboratory Systems Inc.; Spectra Contract Flooring; Spectrum Resource Ltd.; Technology For Education LLC; Terrill Manufacturing Co.; Texas Scenic Co.; Thornton Steel Co. LLC; Thyssen Krupp Elevator Corp.; Viva Railings LLC; Walker Engineering Inc.; Wenger Corp.; Z Floor Co.

Widely known in Texas for its eponymous festival and its Czech roots, the city of West suffered an April 2013 explosion at a local fertilizer plant that caused several deaths and destroyed many homes and businesses and three of the district’s four schools. Realizing that it could not afford to rebuild three campuses, the district devised a dual-campus solution by realigning the 5th grade into the elementary school and bringing 6th through 12th grades under the same roof.

West Independent School District’s new $45.65-million campus has three facilities: a high school, middle school and civic center. Built with insulated concrete forms as the main structural components, the 226,000-sq-ft campus also features a tornado shelter with 14-in.-thick precast concrete walls designed to withstand an EF-5 tornado. West High is the first International Code Council 500 tornado shelter to be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to the new school, the project team constructed a 70,000-sq-ft temporary campus for students for the 2013-14 school year. It accommodated 700 students in 17 modular buildings, some of which were manufactured, while others were donated.

Three weeks of rain delayed work at the outset. To catch up, the team worked evenings and weekends with increased manpower and bigger workloads, while using the rains to help determine how much fill to lay and where to place it.

The project was delivered within budget and on time.


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