How One School Construction Project is Keeping Old With New

Generations of students have walked through the doors and taken photos in front of the arches at Milby High School. The school was built to replace the old Harrisburg High when HISD took over the neighborhood.

Currently demolition crews are tearing down most of Milby High School in East Houston.

In East Houston, demolition crews are tearing down Milby High School to make way for a brand new campus. Except one part of this school will be saved: the historic building on Broadway.

Nicola Springer is an architect with Kirksey the firm working on the job.

“The original building, it’s all concrete — concrete columns, brick façade with clay tile backup, plaster walls and really great bones and elegant construction.”

That construction is nearly 100 years old.

Now the Houston Independent School District is building a new campus for Milby. It’s a $69 million project funded by the 2012 bond.

Springer says the new design will incorporate the oldest structure.

“And so what really we’ve done is jewelized that 1926 building and wrapped the new 21st century learning around it.”

The historic building will become a student union where the school community can gather together. The treatment of this history is different than another school construction project.

David Bush is the deputy director of Preservation Houston, which advised Kirksey architects on the Milby school construction project. Nicola Springer is a vice president at Kirskey Architecture. She has worked on the design for the new Milby campus.

In Fifth Ward, the building that housed one of Houston’s first African-American schools will be torn down. Alumni fought HISD in court to try and save it. They recently settled the case.

Dan Bankhead with HISD says the new campus will pay homage to the history of Phillis Wheatley High.

“As people drive by, hopefully the architect will be able to handle that in a way that will evoke memories of the old facility.”

They plan to salvage bricks and other materials from the original building for the new construction.

David Bush with Preservation Houston says there’s an important lesson from the Milby project.

“What this plan shows is you can maintain the tradition and still serve the 21st century needs of the students. It’s not all or nothing. It really can’t be particularly in projects like this.”

Bush says history isn’t a priority just for preservationists like himself.

“The community really identifies with these buildings. It’s an important part of their history and they see it as an important part of their families.”

Besides Milby, other schools in this bond program will keep historic exteriors while they are rebuilt on the inside. Those are Austin, Davis and Lamar high schools.

Below: Architectural renderings show the concept for the new Milby campus in East Houston. It will incorporate the 1926 school building as its historic core.