Walking through the halls of Coppell High School past 4:15 p.m, it is hard to miss wooden rifles flying high into the air. Spinning, flipping and landing on the floor with a thud, members of Coppell color guard pause for students in the hallway. They are not alone in disruptions caused by a lack of space.
Their concerns did not fall on deaf ears. Coppell ISD’s May 2023 Bond package allocated a maximum of $18.5 million to the construction of a fine arts building at CHS. The building is located west of the CHS fieldhouse and Buddy Echols Field, in what was previously two mostly unused baseball/softball fields. CISD contracted CORE Construction for the project, scheduled for completion in October.
“The choir and band halls were built in 1988 and 1999, but none of the facilities have been updated in the last 25 years,” CISD fine arts director Gerry Miller said. “The new facility is the right size and the right design for modern activity.”
Most CHS fine arts facilities are currently located in F-hall.
“Right now, it’s a pretty decent place, but there’s been quite a few problems associated with it just because of how long it’s been used for,” Coppell Band senior section leader Revanth Manduri said. “The band hall doesn’t have as much space as we would hope for it to have, especially because we have to accommodate color guard, percussion and all the woodwinds and bass instruments.”
Corgan, an architecture company based in Frisco, designed the new center. A number of specific design choices were taken to accommodate student needs.
The band hall specifically was a critical consideration in designing the project.
“That concern stemmed from Mr. Miller,” Corgan senior project manager Erin Bossart said. “When we renovated the previous band hall that is inside the high school, he said even then it was just not big enough because we were limited on how big we could go, since there was nowhere to expand.”
CORE has placed human-focused design front and center in the Fine Arts Center project.
“I think people don’t realize how much cooperation is in construction,” CORE construction superintendent Michael Donahue said. “We’re talking constantly with programs at the high school, the district, the architect and so many more groups.”
The new building includes specialized facilities for programs, such as a large band hall, ensemble rooms, choir hall, soundproof practice rooms, locker rooms, an athletic center, storage rooms and office spaces. Despite these features, various traits are consistent with the main campus, including carpet and clocks.
“We wanted students and staff to know when they pull up to the fine arts facility that you’re still at Coppell High School,” Bossart said. “Once we got to the interior portions of that building, it really was just sitting down with Mr. Miller, the fine arts directors, the band instructor, the dance instructors and cheer, generally making sure that we heard what they needed.”
The input of affected programs was critical to the success of the final design.
“Erin really understands how to pull in a design aesthetic that looks like Coppell ISD,” Miller said. “But she constantly modernizes designs too, including subway tiles and adding a little color to the flooring, before spinning that into the Coppell design.”
CORE broke ground on the site on March 6 with a beam signing ceremony. Now, it is 90-95% complete with construction, and only needs to complete some exterior landscaping and small finishing touches for the interior. This includes foliage, new sprinkler systems, a corrugated metal pavilion for the entrance, external decorations and a sidewalk connecting to the building.
“The folks at CORE run the cleanest work site I’ve ever been at, and a clean work site is a safe, high-quality one,” Miller said. “It’s more than making sure that we’re happy with the product, it’s also seeing how they treat their subcontractors.”
The new band hall is the largest room in the building. It features a wide, tall space, with sound dispersers and fabric wrapped acoustical wall panels. There is 9,385 square feet of storage, sound systems and a wrap-around trophy shelf.
“The number one feature of this building is the size of that band hall, and everything else was built around it,” Bossart said. “We needed to make sure that the ceilings were tall, the insulation provides acoustical value and instrument players get the correct sound reverberations.”
South of the band hall is a similar choir hall, with concrete flooring to create a more noticeable echo for singing.
“We actually swapped the athletic center and choir room’s location, since the program directors made a great point on how choir really thrives off of a very quiet environment,” Miller said.
Notably, the building boasts two locker rooms for color guard, cheerleading and Lariettes drill team. The Fine Arts Center includes a dedicated practice gym, with athletic flooring to prevent visible dents from falling color guard rifles.
“I think it will be beneficial to be in that space, because they’ve incorporated yard lines which will be helpful for practicing our routines,” Lariettes director Hayley Mitchell said.
Mitchell also helps lead the CHS dance department, which currently practices in the small gym.
“Sometimes, we get kicked out of the space because of testing, pictures or a blood drive, and that cuts into our practice time,” Mitchell said. “I’m excited for the teams to have their own space to call home.”
There are also three independent ensemble rooms to facilitate practice, separate from the choir and band halls. The building features 19 individual practice rooms with tectum panels and reinforced doorways to improve sound absorption.
“We actually have fewer practice rooms than previously, but it’s primarily sized for the instruments,” Bossart said. “
So if it’s a single person going in there with a saxophone, then that room does not need to be as large as, say, a room for two people going in there to create music together.”
There are also less obvious benefits, such as increased interdisciplinary interactions between the various fine arts.
“Right now, we’re all pretty secluded,” Manduri said. “But with the Fine Arts Center, we might be able to communicate to a higher degree.”
Manduri also appreciates its proximity to the band’s practice field in the parking lot east of Buddy Echols field.
“Every day for rehearsal we have to walk from the band hall in F hall to the band field, back and forth,” Manduri said. “So I appreciate the shorter walk.”
Outside the building, a former softball field is now an area for Coppell track and field, with long jump and pole vaulting runways, along with sand pits and mats for cushioning falls. It is designed to provide a dedicated space for these groups.
“I’ve worked with Erin on a previous project, and she continues to be a phenomenal architect,” said Miller. “She’s a great listener, which is a really important skill set to understand our needs, walking through design choices and to be able to see what an average day looks like in our student shoes.”
Some fine art program members are concerned about the distance of the Fine Arts center from the main campus.
“We might have to either get released early from our class to walk to the actual building, or if we’re sometimes late, hopefully our teachers will be understanding of it,” Manduri said.
Miller thinks the distance is actually beneficial for students in the long term.
“I think that they’ll need to be prepared for the walk, and it’s a good college and workplace prep skill,” Miller said. “We’ve had some conversations about doing different ideas, so we’ll see where that goes since
there is a limited amount of funds that we can invest in something like that.”
Creating a large building on a bustling campus is no easy feat.
“Unfortunately, the traffic flow in and out of our campus is not great because we’ve only got two roads entering,” Miller said. “So you can imagine if you’re driving a tractor trailer with structural steel, not only do you have to navigate through a neighborhood type environment, but you also have to pass crazy lines in the morning and afternoon.”
CORE adapted to ensure safe, efficient and timely progress. For example, construction crews arrive early in the morning and always leave prior to student pick up to avoid navigating long pick up lines.
“Especially with band and color guard practicing across the street, we are careful not to disrupt them with our work,” Donahue said.
At the conclusion of construction, the focus shifts to integration with the main campus. Between Nov. 1 and the beginning of winter break, affected programs will slowly transition to the new building while still retaining their old facilities.
“Just like if you’re moving from one house to another, if you’ve got six weeks, it really lets you assess questions like, ‘Do I need to keep this feature? Does this need to go to the new building? Is it still being utilized?
Does it need to go into a different storage?” Miller said. “So our hope is, with that slower move, we can be very efficient with what we move, how we move it and when students begin meeting over there.”
After winter break, F hall in the main campus will be closed off to build a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center in its place. Currently, CTE classes are largely located in D hall, while fine arts programs are in the soon-to-be-vacant F hall.
“Coppell High School was built in 1988, and we didn’t have programs like robotics or solar car in 1988,” Miller said. “At the time, all we did was take two classrooms, knock out a wall, and give it to those programs.”
By creating a purpose-built center, the needs of various CTE programs will be better accommodated.
“This is exciting because the move of fine arts opened up a bunch of space for us to create more for these CTE programs,” Bossart said.
The CTE Center will feature a dedicated robotics lab, business classrooms and a new lecture hall.
“CTE centers are fun to design, because they are more industrial,” Bossart said. “There are painted patterns on the walls, and the district requested a lot of glass on the walls so that people traveling through the corridor can see what’s happening and get excited.”
D hall will house a re-imagined rendition of New Tech High @ Coppell as it shifts to the CHS campus. Both the CTE Center and move of New Tech will be complete by the 2026-27 school year.
“The New Tech administration wants meaning and flexibility,” Bossart said.
There’s several areas of collaboration in the corridors, and we’re opening them up to the adjacent classrooms to create one large space.”
As for the Fine Arts Center, students will begin pacing its signature red-and-black halls far sooner than August.
“The nice shiny walls and the bright lights will be noticeable immediately, but over time, students will notice the programs it houses are helping them grow as students because the center addresses the needs of the 21st century learner,” Miller said.
As CISD invests in new, innovative learning solutions, Miller is reminded of the guiding mission behind these projects.
“We’re not only investing in building students academically, but building students athletically and artistically,” Miller said. “So creating the space for them was really important to the district.”
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