Sierra Linda High School Performing Arts Center
Tolleson, Ariz.
Best Project
Owner: Tolleson Union High School District No. 214
Lead Design Firm: ADM Group Inc.
General Contractor: McCarthy Building Cos.
Project team members designed and programmed the Sierra Linda Performing Arts Center to promote community use, serve as a resource to a local school district and foster growing stage-craft and fine-arts music and dance programs. Among other features, the $10.5-million facility includes seating for 600, state-of-the-art LED lighting and automatic stage rigging and controls. To support growing community arts programs, back-of-house spaces incorporate dance and multipurpose music classrooms. The lobby includes a gallery to showcase and display student art pieces.
Reflecting the school’s name, “beautiful mountains” in Spanish, auditorium sidewalls feature mountain shaped cutouts in addition to lighting that simulates the glow of sunset.
To ensure senior students could use the center prior to graduation, the project team met a rigorous nine-month construction schedule that concluded in March 2020 and precluded procurement delays. Maintaining the schedule required onsite collaboration among structural engineers and the steel subcontractor to resolve the issue of incorrectly manufactured steel girders. Testing ensured the members were properly modified and corrected.
To avoid lost time, the team also made extensive use of mock-ups to ensure key components, including enclosure and roof systems, met functional and aesthetic standards. As a result, the completed school required near zero punch-list items.
With construction occurring at a central location on an active campus, general contractor McCarthy Building Cos. identified all potential safety hazards in order to keep students, teachers, staff and parents safe. Among other measures, field operators limited access to construction activity, siting a single secured entry near a parking lot.
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