Life High School Marks Opening

Life High School in Waxahachie, Texas, held a ribbon cutting ceremony today to mark the opening of the new facility. The first charter school in Texas to access the Permanent School Fund, which was until 2014 reserved for Independent School Districts, will serve approximately 1,000 students in 131,500 square feet on a 41-acre campus.

Opened for the 2015-2016 school year, Life High School took less than two years to design and build despite numerous challenges presented by the undeveloped location in a floodplain, the need for an energy efficient and environmentally friendly facility and an extremely aggressive schedule and budget. “The cooperation evident on this project has been amazing,” says Jim Talkington, Senior Project Manager for The Beck Group. “A project of this magnitude would normally take 16 to 17 months, however the teamwork displayed throughout has allowed Beck to approach substantial completion in just 14 months. This allowed students to start the fall semester in this location.”

The school includes 25 classrooms designed around dramatic skylit corridors, a gymnasium with two practice courts and a seating capacity of 1,200, locker rooms and a weight room. In addition, the school will also feature a football stadium and practice fields. Rounding out the interior space are fully outfitted science and computer labs, a band and choir room, a black box theater, an audio-visual lab, a multi-purpose cafeteria, a library, a 9,400 square foot kitchen to serve other Life Schools as well as the high school, administrative office space and a Commons area. The building is planned for expansion with two classroom wings to educate an additional 200 students along with a second gym and a choir room. In addition to providing architectural and construction services, The Beck Group also completed the interior design.