Ground Broken at Esteban E. Torres High School

LOS ANGELES – Clark Construction Group, California - LP has broken ground on the site of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) High School #2, the future Esteban E. Torres High School. When complete in 2010, the school will be the first high school delivered to its East Los Angeles community in more than 85 years. The Esteban E. Torres High School campus sits on a 13-acre site approximately five miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The nine-building campus will sprawl across the local topography, lending itself to unique features including an outdoor amphitheater, an underground parking structure, tiered rows of basketball and tennis courts and an athletic stadium overlooking the neighborhood. The finished school will include five small learning communities that will house classrooms, science labs and academy administration. Additional facilities include performing arts classrooms, a library, multipurpose room, two gymnasiums, food service and lunch shelter, and central administration offices. In all, Clark will be building 86 classrooms.

A joint-use agreement between LAUSD and East Los Angeles Classic Theater will allow students to benefit from a unique educational theater program and take advantage of the outdoor amphitheater. The theater program, founded by local veteran actor Tony Plena and carried out through the East Los Angeles Classic Theater, develops literacy skills in English learners and cultivates minority readers, writers, and audiences through exposure to classic plays and literature. Esteban E Torres High School is part of LAUSD’s $19.3 billion school construction program that will build 145 schools by 2012.

This is the second LAUSD school that Clark has built. LAUSD #10, Miguel Contreras Learning Complex was completed in September 2006 and was honored in 2007 as “Best K-12 Project,” “Outstanding Architectural Design” and “Project of the Year” by California Construction magazine.

Langdon Wilson of Los Angeles is the project architect. Project partners include Brandow & Johnson Associates, Los Angeles, structural engineer, Morrow Meadows, City of Industry, Calif., electrical subcontractor; and McClone Construction Company, El Dorado Hills, Calif., concrete subcontractor.