Music building on track to be completed in August

January 30, 2017 — by Kevin Chow and David Fan

The new music building is on track to be completed in August, but the price tag of the new state-of-the-art facility will be $4 million more than originally projected, principal Paul Robinson said.

The new music building is on track to be completed in August, but the price tag of the new state-of-the-art facility will be $4 million more than originally projected, principal Paul Robinson said.

The construction of the new music building has been more expensive than originally predicted in the 2013 estimation. According to Robinson, the music building was originally estimated to cost $10 to $12 million, but nearly $16 million have been invested into the building, something that Robinson partially attributes to the increased costs of construction, especially in the Silicon Valley. Robinson said that these additional costs are typical in a large construction project.

The additional costs have been made up for by prioritizing certain aspects of the original plan.

“For example, originally there were millions of dollars put into reroofing all buildings, but we’ve decided that there were [only some] areas that just needed some repairs,” Robinson said.

Additionally, the team room and athletic director’s office were originally going to be moved closer to the football field, while the vacated space was supposed to be replaced with a third gym. However, Robinson said that the architects found out there was not enough space to build it.

So far, there has not been a set area for an extra gym, and Robinson believes that this will be one of the last projects that will be completed.

As of now, Robinson said that the construction has been going on without many setbacks.

We’ve been fortunate that the increased costs for construction [of the music building] have been balanced against other projects that did not cost as much as projected,” he said. “So far we are right on schedule and budget for all of the projects.”

As the construction of the music building proceeds in full swing, focus is shifting to the next phase of the construction: the 800 building located at the top of the quad steps, according to Robinson. During winter break, the cinderblock wall in front of the building was torn down to allow for a future expansion of the building, which will extend the building past the dirt area until it hits the concrete.

The 800 building is slated to become a student center and will have a “real student-centered purpose to it,” whether it be the new home of the ASB or Leadership or simply “open up areas for students to hang out,” according to Robinson.

Meanwhile, the old music building will be repurposed into a Media Arts Program lab, something which Robinson said is a natural transition.

“They have all those practice rooms, and we want those to become small collaboration rooms that MAP can use when working on their projects or videos,” Robinson said. “It already has a natural setup in it, and we don’t have to do a whole lot of work.”

Other projects include refurbishing the 900 building into a robotics room and an additional science classroom and repairing and replacing roofing materials on some buildings.

 

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