RENOVATION REPORT: CMS spending millions to renovate Myers Park High School

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A multimillion-dollar makeover for Myers Park High School’s classrooms and media center started in August.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is using $22.2 million in bond money to construct two new buildings at the school, which opened in 1951, and tear down old ones.  The first building will be a 66,878-square-foot three-story classroom building and include a 5,000-square-foot media center. The $13.4 million building will have 40 classrooms and it is scheduled to open in August 2016, before the next school year starts.

Charlotte-based Boomerang Architecture designed the building and BE&K Building Group LLC’s office in town is doing the construction.

“(The media center) is going to be beautiful on the third floor,” Assistant Principal Justin Holt said.

The Myers Park renovation is one of the district’s largest construction projects, said Chip Lofton, CMS’ project manager for the work. “It is replacing some existing mobile classrooms, so it is accommodating growth. It is also replacing some older buildings.”

Myers Park’s has 2,900 students, a slight increase over the 2,800 students it had last year.

The new building is being constructed on a parking lot between the technology and language arts facilities. The language arts and physics buildings will be torn down when the new classrooms and media center are completed.

District and school officials said the new building is also needed to make it easier on Myers Park’s disabled students, especially those who are in wheelchairs and can’t climb stairs. They currently have to take longer routes to get to ramps so they can get their classes in the existing buildings, Holt said.

The new building will also be wired for the latest technology.

CMS originally just planned on renovating the language arts building, but determined it made more financial sense to construct something new, Lofton said.

A second classroom building is planned for Myers Park as well, north of the building currently under construction. That three-story building, with 20-30 classrooms, is still in the design phase, so the cost hasn’t been determined, Lofton said.

The second building will replace a sciences building that will eventually be torn down.

Construction on the second building will probably start in fall 2016 and it could be completed in August 2017, Lofton said.

The new buildings will allow Myers Park to get rid of mobile classrooms on the west side of the campus, where a storm retention pond will be built, Lofton said.

The renovations come after the school district recently spent $2.1 million on the school’s stadium and $7.15 million on the gymnasium.

Project description: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is constructing two buildings with classrooms and a media center at Myers Park High School.

Address: 2400 Colony Road, Charlotte

Cost: $22.2 million

Contractor: BE&K Building Group LLC

Size: The first building will be 66,878 square feet. The size of the second building has not been determined.

Renovation started: August

Anticipated completion: August 2017