Construction is well underway at Austin ISD's new districtwide Performing Arts Center, where AISD students will be able to sing, dance, perform and display their art when it opens in 2015.

Work on the 68,000-square-foot center, located at 1500 Barbara Jordan Blvd., is about 70 percent complete and slated to be finished by November, said Greg Goodman, director of AISD's fine arts department.

Goodman gave local media a tour of the construction site July 22. He noted other area school districts, such as Hays CISD and Round Rock ISD, have performing arts centers, but noted AISD's is one of the only ones with dedicated dance space, visual arts accommodations and an on-site recording studio.

"This particular building and performing arts center is one of the finest in the country, and it was well worth the wait and time," he said.

Austin voters approved the construction of the new districtwide Performing Arts Center as part of the $343.7 million 2008 bond program. The district looked for a centrally located site, broke ground on the facility in the Mueller development Aug. 6., and has scheduled grand opening events for Jan. 22–24, Goodman said.

"The biggest delay was trying to find the site, and once we picked out a site it took time to go through the city to get approval. So [since] we got that approval things have been on target," Goodman said. "We looked at several [sites] but our goal was not to rush it; we wanted to find the perfect site and we believe that we did."

School groups throughout the district can reserve the facility for student performances and events, he said. The district will also allow AISD stakeholders such as principals and staff to use the facility for professional development and large meetings. Starting Sept. 1, the district will open the center to reservations by non-AISD organizations, but the top priority is student performances and classes, he said.

"This is a space for our students, where our students can learn and have real life experiences and also have a performance venue that is one of the best in the state, if not in the nation," he said.

About the center

The main auditorium's dusty concrete and uncovered beams will soon be home to the performing arts center's planned 1,200-seat auditorium with a stage to accommodate large groups, Goodman said.

"We can probably seat up to 200 [performers] on stage, which is going to be phenomenal when we do our all-city events," he said, noting there is an orchestra pit for musicals as well.

Work is also in progress on the center's 250-seat black-box theater, a 150-seat multipurpose room that will be used for music students' sight-reading, dance rehearsal space, and light- and sound-booths large enough to serve as demonstration classrooms for theatre tech students, he said. There will also be a parking garage with about 440 spots.

Florence Rice, project manager for AISD's construction management department, said plans have incorporated some green elements such as Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, or LEED, certification.

"At a minimum we plan to achieve a three-star Austin Energy Green Building Program rating and LEED Silver certification," she said. "We won't know the final accounting and all of the points until construction is complete, so it's quite possible we can exceed those levels."

The center will help the district in continuing its commitment to fine arts, Goodman said. There are about 550 fine arts teachers in the district, and some fine arts department staffers will office out of the new space, he said.

AISD plans to hire a performing arts center manager and assistant manager to oversee events held in the facility, Goodman said.

In Texas, children are required to take fine arts classes at the secondary and elementary level, Goodman said, explaining AISD students attend music, arts and physical education classes every third day for 45 minutes.

AISD has worked with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to help launch Any Given Child, a communitywide partnership with the city of Austin, Mindpop and more than 40 community arts organizations to provide arts-rich classrooms and educational opportunities to students.

Also scheduled to open this fall is the North Central Elementary School No. 2, now named Padron Elementary School, at 2011 W. Rundberg Lane, which is a former commercial building that included a warehouse.