Site work is scheduled to begin this summer on a $20 million auditorium at Escambia High School in Pensacola, Florida.
The Pensacola News Journal reports that the 24,000-square-foot performing arts facility will seat about 800 and will have a recording studio and dedicated space for a visual arts gallery.
The facility is expected to be completed in about 16 months. The district also has plans to build an auditorium on the Tate High School campus.
Keith Wasdin, the district's director of funding, said the auditorium will provide space for about half of Escambia High’s student body to attend school assemblies. It will also be used by the band and chorus for practices, rehearsals, concerts, performances and other events.
The construction project will also solve some flooding problems at the school.
“The building will be placed at Escambia High in an area where there has been considerable amount of flooding,” Wasdin said. "We’re curing several issues with this one project."
Escambia High was built in the late 1950s. The band hall – built in 2004 or 2005 – was the last structure constructed on the campus.
The architect for the auditorium prototype is Sam Marshall Architects, and the construction manager for the Escambia project is Greenhut Construction.
