Stony Point High School
Round Rock, Texas
Round Rock I.S.D.
300,000 Sq. Ft.
$30 M
1999

Architect: BLGY Architects

Stony Point is the newest of Round Rock ISD's high schools.  The school takes advantage of a challenging sloping site to create a distinctive facility for the students and the district.  With about 15 feet of slope across the site, BLGY architects conceived a two-story building for the central administration, library, and two classroom wings, along the lower end at the front of the site.  The single story complex at the back houses the cafetorium, along with athletics, arts, and electives.  The two pieces of the school are linked by two enclosed "bridge" buildings which enclose an outdoor courtyard with sloped concrete amphitheater seating and a small stage.  Exposed structural framing is evident throughout the building, particularly in its unique curved front canopies reminiscent of the Vatican, and in the main hallway/commons area that runs down the spine of the building. 

To protect the building from the very active clay soils on the site, Datum Engineers designed the entire ground level of the school as a suspended pan joist structure over crawl space.  This system was selected upon the completion of a thorough typical bay study for the classroom wings where eight different framing options were investigated and priced.  In the end, the Owner decided to pay a small premium for the suspended structure, rather than risk damage with a soil removal and replacement scheme.