Tasked with rebuilding a historic Tampa elementary school that was nearly destroyed in 2017 by the one-two punch of Hurricane Irma and ensuing fire, contractor JE Dunn Construction Co. and architect Fleishman Garcia began a painstaking effort to revive the early 1900s-era brick building into a modern facility.
Once on site after winning the assignment to rebuild and expand Tampa Heights Elementary Magnet School in late 2018, the team found that areas of the building’s heavily damaged west side were near collapse, with one wall leaning roughly 6 in. out of plumb. The hazardous situation caused the owner to hire another contractor to install steel bracing around a section of the building to prevent it from falling.