Bond issue projects update
March 12, 2021
Hutton Construction and SJCF Architecture are teaming up to bring three new major projects to Maize. These projects include two new intermediate schools and a performing arts and aquatic center. The new intermediate schools will be home to fifth and sixth-grade students.
The larger of the two schools being Maize Intermediate School located on the northwest corner of 45th and 119th. The school will be 162,000 square feet and can house 1000 students if needed.
“We had an opportunity here to create a school that was really specialized for the Maize district,” Darin Augustin from SJCF Architecture said. “[…]We came up with a plan that I think really suits the district well.”
Augustin explains that the design for Maize Intermediate will focus on collaboration space and natural light in hopes to create a positive environment for students.
Maize South Intermediate School will be 148,000 square feet and can house 750 students. This school is located off of 37th adjacent to the Maize Early Childhood Center and will have a similar layout to Maize Intermediate. However, the length of the wings will be slightly smaller.
“All the classroom spaces are the same,” Augustin said. “The only difference is they just don’t have the extra pods on the end that we do at the Maize Intermediate Campus.”
Augustin describes the new performing arts and aquatic center as one of the most unique and one-of-a-kind buildings SJCF has been involved with. It will house a 900 seat auditorium with balcony seating for performing arts and an 8-lane, 25-yard lap pool along with a shallow pool and diving well.
“This one has a lot of engineering involved in it,” Augustin said. “A lot of layout, a lot of thought was put into this.”
The building will also contain a multi-use commons area, stage crafts room, studio and classrooms with movable walls to create a large holding room for events held at the facility.
Work on the Intermediate schools started in April and May of last year and both buildings have taken shape. James Keusler from Hutton says that they were behind on brick construction for the exterior of the schools.
“The plant that fabricated the brick was caught by a COVID issue,” Keusler said. “Their plant shut down for more than two months and so the brick materials themselves were delayed by a couple of months.”
Hutton has added more crews to speed up installation time and plans to have the projects done on time. Construction will be completed this summer.
The performing arts and aquatic center project broke ground in September. Cranes have been lifting up 50 foot tall concrete walls as they continue to work on the framing of the structure.
“Some of these wall panels are seventy, eighty-thousand pounds pieces[…]” Keusler said, “so it takes quite a crane and quite a crew to get that done but they’ve done actually a very nice job with it.”
Hutton aims for late October for the completion of the performing arts and aquatic center.
Other projects include the completed addition to Maize Complete, a future addition to Maize South High School and major renovations to Maize High.
