Kinder HSPVA Principal Scott Allen looks around a nearly complete classroom at the school's new campus, under construction in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
A stairway inside Kinder HPSVA's new campus pays homage to similar structures at the school's first two facilities. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
A parent and school bus drop off area under construction at the new Kinder HSPVA campus in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
(L-R) Alene Coggin, executive director of HSPVA Friends, poses with principal Scott Allen, and Aaron Moss and Ashley Rhodes of McCarthy Building Companies Inc. inside the new HSPVA campus, being constructed in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
An artist's rendering of artwork that will be installed in the stairway at Kinder HSPVA's new campus in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
An artist's rendering of artwork that will be installed in the stairway at Kinder HSPVA's new campus in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
An artist's rendering of artwork that will be installed in the stairway at Kinder HSPVA's new campus in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
An artist's rendering of a wall honoring donors at Kinder HSPVA's new campus in downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
An artist's rendering of the exterior of Kinder HPSVA's new downtown campus. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
A cross section of Kinder HPSVA's new downtown campus. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
A rendering of the library at Kinder HSPVA's new downtown campus. (Photo Credit: HSPVA Friends/Gensler)
UPDATE (January 7, 2019): The Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts opened the doors on its new downtown campus today, where more than 750 students will study music, dance, theater, and other arts. The 168-thousand square-foot-building spans five stories and has multiple theaters.
The Kinder name is also a new addition, after the Kinder Foundation pledged $7.5 million to plug a budget shortfall in the school's construction in exchange for naming rights. However, as News 88-7's Laura Isensee reported last month, the school district has yet to receive the funds.
Back in June, Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty went on a tour of the campus to check on its progress and learn more about its facilities.
Work continues on the new downtown campus for Houston's Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. While students aren't expected to be in place until January, the facility's many classrooms, dance studios, stages, and performance spaces are starting to take shape.
One of the key components of the new campus is the Denney Theater, which can seat 800 people. It can be used for every kind of performing art as well as to host all-school assemblies.
"The main theater, the Denney Theater, is sort of the heart of the whole thing, so everything surrounds this from the first floor all the way to the fifth floor," Principal Scott Allen, told Houston Matters.
Representatives from the project’s construction firm, McCarthy Building Companies Inc., said work is more than 90 percent complete. Allen said the school will move from its longtime Montrose campus between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and students will begin classes at the new facility when the new semester begins in January.
"The location was the most important just because we're blocks away from the theater district," Allen said. “We have partnerships with all the arts organizations, and so for us to be able to either walk a few blocks or jump on the train and take kids down to the Alley or the Hobby or Jones it just strengthens those partnerships."
The school also plans to have artists from those organizations on campus to teach master classes.
Listen to the audio below for the full tour of the campus with.
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Michael Hagerty is the senior producer for Houston Matters. He's spent more than 20 years in public radio and television and dabbled in minor league baseball, spending four seasons as the public address announcer for the Reno Aces, the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
