What is included in the $14.5 million budget?

The budget includes:

• estimated “hard costs” (the cost of construction);
• estimated “soft costs” (including architectural and engineering fees, fees for design review by the Division of State Architect, construction management fees, inspection and permit fees, utility fees, costs relating to relocation of the theater classroom and performance space, estimated price escalation, and furnishings, fixtures and equipment, including new seating, theater lighting and sound systems); and
• design and construction contingency funds.

The District’s architect, Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA), estimates that the hard costs would be approximately $9.8 million. Vila Construction, the District’s Construction Manager, independently reviewed and confirmed the QKA estimate as reasonable. Vila’s analysis of the hard costs for the project include: $8.4 million for construction costs; a 5% allowance ($480,000) for one year’s worth of cost escalation to account for the time period between development of schematic design and completion of the construction documents; and a 15% design contingency ($1.2 million) to cover any additional construction costs and fees for architectural revisions that might result from plan changes imposed by the Division of the State Architect (DSA) during DSA review. Vila’s total estimate is $10.1 million. If DSA does not require significant changes to the design, and depending upon actual bids to perform the work, the actual hard costs may be measurably less.

The District, with the assistance of Vila Construction, estimated that the soft costs and other non-construction costs would be roughly $2.5 million, and that a prudent and appropriate program contingency fund would be $1.9 million, bringing the project budget to $14.5 million.

As the District found in renovating both Wildwood and Beach Schools during the SSBP, unknown conditions may exist in AHT that increase construction costs after the start of construction. For this reason, a program contingency fund is needed. Note that design contingency differs from program contingency in that design contingency allows for cost increases before the start of construction, mandated by DSA, and program contingency allows for cost increases due to unforeseen conditions discovered after the start of construction. (The program contingency is discussed below.)

Please note that, even after the budget is established, the District will engage in continual “value engineering” with the architect, construction manager, and builder, to contain and possibly reduce project costs. Value engineering is a process to assess the cost-effectiveness of building systems, products and materials. The District and Vila Construction have a strong record of value engineering during the SSBP.

How does the $14.5 million budget compare with other school theater renovations?

While each theater is unique in its needs and degree of work, seating capacity, and theater design components, rough cost comparisons can be made on a cost per square foot basis. The following recent theater projects in and around the Bay Area offer some cost comparison.

Hillsdale High School Theater in San Mateo was recently renovated with a lobby and back stage addition. The hard costs were $13,381,000 or $669 per square foot (the theater area is 20,000 square feet and holds 770 seats).

San Mateo High School Performing Arts Theater was recently renovated with a lobby addition. The hard costs were $26,806,000 or $547 per square foot (the theater area is 49,000 square feet and holds 1,500 seats).

St. Francis High School in Mountain View constructed a theater in 2009 with a construction cost of $10,787,239 or $546 per square foot (the theater area is 19,750 square feet and holds 409 seats).

In comparison, the hard costs for renovation of AHT are estimated to be $9.64 million (in today’s dollars without escalation), or $553 per square foot (the theater area would be 17,424 square feet and hold 365 seats).

Please note that although the seating capacity is different for each of these theaters, many costs (relating to the stage, orchestra pit, lighting and other equipment) are not dependent on number of seats.

Would it be more cost-effective to tear down AHT and build a new theater?

The cost of tearing down the existing facility and building a new theater is estimated to be between $25 million and $30 million, based on comparable school theaters that have been built in recent years in El Cerrito, Castro Valley, San Ramon and San Leandro.

How does the estimated cost of AHT compare with the cost to renovate Havens and Ellen Driscoll Theater?

The differences between building or renovating a theater as opposed to a school make side-by-side comparisons difficult. (The same difficulty arises when comparing the cost of remodeling a kitchen with the cost of adding a bedroom.) The hard cost to rebuild Havens Elementary School totaled $21.1 million, or $461 per square foot. (Havens is 45,660 square feet.) The total (combined hard and soft costs, excluding interim housing) for the new Havens Elementary School was $27.4 million. These amounts do not include costs associated with Ellen Driscoll Theater, which has a separate project budget.

The hard costs of the Ellen Driscoll renovation totaled $1.93 million, or $371 per square foot. (The building is 5,200 square feet). The total (combined hard and soft costs, excluding interim housing) for Ellen Driscoll was $2.5 million. Note that this project was not a true theater renovation, but a seismic retrofit project only. Ellen Driscoll did not require the creation of accessible pathways or seating, because the pathways already met the current accessibility requirements and there are no aisles, different seating levels, and no fixed seats in the building. The renovation of Ellen Driscoll focused primarily on strengthening the exterior shell of the building by structurally integrating the outside walls with the building’s roof. The Ellen Driscoll project did not include theatrical design that would be found in AHT, such as installing new seats, theater lighting, rigging, or a theatrical sound system. The combined project costs for Havens Elementary School (including Ellen Driscoll Theater) is $29.9 million.

In comparison, the estimated hard costs of the proposed AHT renovation are $553 per square foot. (AHT is 17,424 square feet.)

Although the District renovated the Wildwood and Beach auditoriums, these were included with the school’s project budget, so no separate per-square-foot cost information is available for those facilities.

Why would renovation of AHT total $14.5 million when the complete rebuild of Havens totaled $29.9 million?

Comparing AHT to Havens is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Of all educational facilities, performing arts theaters are the most complex and expensive, and they cost more per square foot than classrooms and even specialized teaching spaces. This is because of the complexity of lighting, rigging, sound and acoustics, mechanical systems, seating, exiting, and orchestra pits. This is the case for new theaters as well as modernization of existing theaters.

Source: http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/news/alan-harvey-theater

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