Rising construction costs have Anderson School District 5 officials scaling back plans for an auditorium at Calhoun Academy of the Arts and cutting the square footage of a new middle school on Dobbins Bridge Road.
School district trustees learned Thursday night that both projects would need to be scaled back to stay within their budgets.
The budget for Calhoun’s auditorium is $3.1 million, but to build the 20,000-square-foot, 1,000-seat auditorium they envisioned would have cost $6.5 million, according to architects at McKay Zorn & Associates.
Several parts of the design — corridors leading from the stage to the lobby, a prop storage room, two screen walls and an orchestra pit — were cut from the base bid to lower the square footage. The firm also reduced the auditorium capacity from 1,000 to 800 seats to drop the cost down to $3.5 million. The deleted items still will be included as alternates the district can choose to pursue should it have the money.
“I’m really disappointed in our estimate efforts,” Trustee Chuck Alewine said. “…We’re not even close to what we proposed or promised.”
Calhoun Principal Ann Self said the school has been using NewSpring Church’s auditorium in Anderson and filling approximately 2,200 seats, so even with 1,000 seats, the students still would need to put on multiple performances.
Facing similar issues at the new middle school, trustees learned that their vision of a three-story, classical building will have to be adjusted to a one-story structure in order to stay within budget.
The rising price of steel and concrete eliminates some of the savings of building multiple stories, such as having one roof, said David Lindsay, a construction management consultant hired to help with the project.
The school’s anticipated capacity is 800 students, but that can be expanded to accommodate 1,000. The new design reduced the classroom sizes, stage areas in the auditorium, the number of offices and tightened the guidance office space to drop the building’s to134,482 square feet.
“It looks as though – as much as I hate that – that we’re going to have to go to a one story,” Superintendent Betty Bagley said.
Cost estimates for the middle school were not available yet Thursday.
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Comments » 6
flashback00#207245 writes:
Re:fleecing.....baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
Progressive writes:
Poor, poor planning and lack of fiscal insight into the constuction process. Obviously no contingency planning and no accountability.
BigBullyDawg writes:
I remember the good ol' days when schools were built for function, rather than aesthetics. Construction costs have gone up tremendously, but if we would stop building these Architctural masterpieces the costs would drop tremendously. All of these rolled or radiused corners cost many times more to build than a plain old square corner. You couple that with all of the extras they put in these contract documents, no wonder everything is over budget. It's a school (or ANY Government building for that matter), does it really have to be an aesthetic landmark?
yankee writes:
They should cut the whole performing arts school. I believe in a public education for all children and gladly pay for it, but why do we need to train kids to be actors/actresses and artists? I'll include sports too.
I MIGHT support the school, but ONLY AFTER we are successful with teaching kids the basics. Anything else is a waste and a distraction.
upstatewave writes:
When are the tax payers going to start holding these so called educated administrators accountable for these oversights? This buy now pay later mentality is why the country is in the mess we are in now. Our graduation rate is one of the poorest in the country and we have football coaches and AD's not teaching class. Time for a chage at the top in District 5.
origrethnk#219074 writes:
Educators who rise up to become administrators have risen to their level of incompetence......and it shows.
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