Bee Cave Middle School

Bee Cave Middle School’s design includes several distinctive elements that differentiate it from other comparable facilities. The building’s central architectural highlight is a three-story rotunda made with cast-in-place concrete featuring a central spiral staircase. The  building’s entire skin that surrounds this staircase has open glass that extends above the roof clerestory down to the ground level. This creates an inviting and dynamic entry.

Another distinguishing feature of the facility is the vast amount of exposed structure throughout all common areas such as the cafeteria, corridors, rotunda, and other “neighborhood” gathering spaces. Construction of these spaces utilized acoustical metal decking, a perforated decking with flutes filled with sound-absorbing material that dampen the reverberation of noise.

Value-Managed Design – The school plans originally proposed fiber-faced Sheetrock from ceiling to floor throughout the school, since it is less prone to mold than standard paper-faced Sheetrock. Our team determined that employing paperless Sheetrock on the bottom four inches of the walls would accomplish the desired mold-resistance and structural integrity retention in the event of a leak. Above that strip of wall, paper-faced Sheetrock was sufficient.

Our team saved Lake Travis ISD $170,000 by instituting this alternate Sheetrock solution. We also suggested changes to original ceiling tiles and irrigation areas that deducted a combined $165,000 from the final project cost.