By Josh Martinez
Twitter: @jmartinez064

Construction is set to begin at Hohokam Elementary School and Scottsdale Unified School District leaders now know what to expect when the bill comes due.

The SUSD Governing Board unanimously approved a guaranteed maximum price of $21,986,783 for Chasse Building Team to fulfill the school’s planned renovation. The approval came at its June 9 meeting.

Three week earlier, the Governing Board saw plans for the project from SPS+ Architects. The plans included artist’s renderings of the school and other design elements.

Chasse Building Team Project Director Fred Buehler introduced the GMP to the Governing Board and reaffirmed how his team has worked closely with the district and SPS+ Architects to meet the demands of this project.

“I know it’s pretty exciting once we’re able to start construction,” he said. “We’re certainly confident that once we turn this over next June that the students, staff and the community are going to be thrilled with the new campus.”

While the project is ongoing, Hohokam students are sharing a campus with Yavapai Elementary School. Plans call for the project to finish next summer.

At the June 9 meeting, Director of Building Services Dennis Roehler presented the schematics of the new campus, reporting the renovated school buildings will be 74,273 square feet. This size is down from 77,030 square feet prior to construction.

The campus will likely have a program capacity of 708, which only includes classrooms over 700 square feet Mr. Roehler said. This would be down from 750 per the Sept. 6, 2019 capacity study. Last September, Hohokam was a bit over 50% capacity.

The new campus will feature six of the original buildings, all of which Chasse Building Team will renovate. Crews will also replace the two building at the center of campus with two larger buildings. Plans also call for the removal of the three northernmost buildings.

Those two centralized buildings will house administration, cafeteria, media center, PE spaces and music spaces. There are also plans to put a small amphitheater at the center of the campus with a focus at the two inner courtyards.

At the May 19 meeting, Darlene Cadman, project manager at SPS+ Architects, said the community was big on maintaining the Ralph Haver architecture look, which SPS+ Architectures tried to keep present. Mr. Haver was an architecture who designed many buildings in the Valley between 1945 and 1980, designing Hohokam in 1959.

Ms. Cadman said the design team tried to keep the new buildings low to not dwarf the original buildings on each side. She also said the crew used materials that could mimic the original Haver building qualities.

Board President Allyson Beckham said she was happy to see the efforts of SPS+ to keep the redesign as close as it could to the original design.

“This community especially was very active in their feelings for keeping the look and feel of the neighborhood, keeping that lower classroom and keeping it as kid-sized for elementary school,” she said during the May 19 meeting.

“Also, I just love incorporating so much of the existing materials into the new structure. I’m just hearing everybody is very pleased and aesthetically, it just looks beautiful.”

Other updates will include the moving of the memorial garden to the front of the building on Oak Street and overhangs at the entrance of the new buildings that wil mimic the original Haver buildings.

Governing Board Vice President Patty Beckman said, at the May 19 meeting, she was happy to see how the plans turned out.

“I know the community said early on they wanted their voice to be heard with regard to the design and I feel like you’ve achieved that,” she said in response to the SPS+ presentation. “It looks fantastic. We’re excited. I’ve been watching the demo [demolition] go on and I’m really optimistic to see the final product.”