Going up next to the existing Cass Tech High School is the new Cass Tech High School, which will provide the school's students and faculty with a study in contrasting buildings.

Estimates to refurbish the existing Cass Tech building, which was constructed in stages beginning in 1917, was estimated at $120 million, with an additional $3 million per year for maintenance over the cost of maintaining a new building. The new school is expected to cost $100 million.

The Detroit Public School District chose the new school option. Construction began Sept. 1, and now the building's framework is rising seven stories near downtown Detroit. Local 25 iron workers, along with Ideal Steel and Whitmore Steel, topped the building out on March 7. Jenkins Construction is the project's construction manager.

"Things are going very smoothly," said Dick Cooper, general superintendent for Jenkins. "We've had excellent cooperation with the trades."

Money wasn't the only issue in deciding to build a new school. The existing classrooms are only about 550 square feet, a third the size of today's standard. The library is woefully undersized compared to today's media centers. And the old gymnasium seats only 400 - to serve a school population of 2,400.

The new school, situated on a tight 18-acre site, will have the larger classrooms, glass-enclosed stairways, a glass-enclosed dining area, and a new media center. It will also incorporate elements from the old school, including limestone architectural features over doorways, murals painted by students, and some fine plaster and grill work.

"The new Cass Tech will be a diamond in the middle of a rough area," said Nisah Tahara, spokeswoman for the Detroit Public Schools Program Manager Team. "The building has been designed around what the educators said they needed, and it's just going to be a beautiful building."

The 240,000 square-foot building is expected to put to work up to 200 Hardhats at peak employment. Doors to the new school are expected to open on Jan. 5, 2005, the day students at Cass Tech come back from their holiday break. Plans call for the old building to be demolished, and replaced by a baseball and football field.

READY TO SET the first course of block for an exterior wall for the new Cass Tech High School are (l-r) Michael Zanier, Aaron Harden and Ken Cressy of Bricklayers Local 1 and Leidal and Hart. Behind then is the existing Cass Tech.