Population Growth Leads to School Expansions

Caress Stadium at Helfman Field is located on Emery/Weiner School’s 15-acre campus.

HOUSTON—The Emery/Weiner School is experiencing significant growth in its student population, curricula and campus amenities. To keep pace with the growth, a construction project recently was completed at the private day school in Southwest Houston. Caress Stadium at Helfman Field is located on the 15-acre campus at 9825 Stella Link Rd. The fieldhouse project includes locker rooms, weight room, ticket booth, concessions and support functions on the first level along with a film deck, press box and mechanical mezzanine on the second level. There is also an on-site storage building adjacent to the field along with two wing wall structures on each end of the bleachers that will seat more than 500 spectators. The Houston office of JQ provided structural engineering services for the stadium.  JQ’s partner John Hoenig PE, LEED AP tells GlobeSt.com: “Sports and recreation facilities can be the heart of the campus community and the difference between some K-12 and collegiate facilities is shrinking. As such our work at the collegiate level such as Amon Carter Stadium for Texas Christian University, Apogee Stadium for University of North Texas, Jones Stadium expansion and new training facility for Texas Tech University and new softball stadium for Texas A&M University allows us to better inform all of our educational clients on how to construct the best facility which meets their specific needs.” The amenities package represents a major milestone in the school’s champions campaign, a capital campaign with the goal of raising $20 million by 2020 to enrich academic programs, extend tuition assistance and to expand facilities to accommodate growth in its athletics and arts programs. The Emery/Weiner School is a private, coeducational, pluralistic Jewish day school, serving students in grades six through 12. “We have significant expertise in providing collaborative structural design services for sports and recreation facilities for both public and private educational clients. It’s been a pleasure to work with the Emery/Weiner school and other project team members,” Hoenig says.