Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District

Introduction

As a suburb on the east side of Houston, Baytown experienced tremendous growth during the last decade. In planning for additional families and students, the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) issued bonds for numerous construction and renovation projects in 2013 and 2019, including the addition of an Education Service Center.

The  Story

The Education Service Center is an administration facility for Goose Creek CISD. This building houses their special education department, curriculum and instruction, food and nutrition services, training room, testing storage, and an on-site gym and wellness center. The building was an existing medical office that we repurposed for GCCISD’s use. The remaining buildings on the site were demolished, the rest of the site will be utilized in the future for a District event center. Given the task of completely gutting and renovating a medical office facility into the Education Service Center, PBK Architects and Comex General Contractors took on the challenge to create the new service center campus. 

Surfacing specifications required solutions that met the modern style and would be durable, impact resistant, and easy to maintain. For the new lobby and administration areas, the School District wanted to create a professional atmosphere with a modern feel instead of the outdated medical office. The designers selected Crossville’s Alaska porcelain tile collection, providing a similar look to terrazzo without the expense. This modern, terrazzo-look collection added the upscale aesthetics without the expense of real terrazzo flooring. The dual finish on this tile creates just the right amount of shine that is reminiscent of true terrazzo flooring with performance unheard of in traditional terrazzo materials. 

For the lobby and the hallways, the team installed in the large field tile size of 24”x48” in the Glacier colorway offering the beautiful, nature-inspired, tone-on-tone visuals of its namesake state which created a calm and serene entrance lobby. Utilizing the large field tiles provided fewer grout lines enabling the desired modern style throughout the lobby and the hallways of the facility.

Continuing with the color scheme throughout the restrooms, the team again chose Alaska in the Glacier hue in the polygon mosaic for the bathroom floors. Easy to maintain in high traffic areas like restrooms, the Alaska polygon mosaic option provides additional slip resistance for wet areas and ensures design consistency throughout the facility.