Swinerton completes $232M Compton high school

Concord, California-based Swinerton has completed a $232 million high school in Compton, California, with brand new facilities for the Compton Unified School District according to an Aug. 13 news release.

Compton High School’s campus, located in southern Los Angeles, stretches 31 acres and will serve 1,800 students, according to the news release. Construction began in 2019 with the demolition of the original 126-year-old campus. 

It also featured a $10 million donation from Andre Young, better known as the rapper, producer and Compton native Dr. Dre. Those funds helped build the school’s Andre “Dr. Dre” Young Performing Arts Center.

Alongside Swinerton, the project was designed by Omaha, Nebraska-based architect DLR Group and managed by Seattle-based Cumming Group.

In total, the project logged roughly 720,000 workhours with nearly 200 workers on the jobsite daily. Over 60% of the workforce was local, which far outstripped Swinerton’s 35% goal, the company told Construction Dive via email.

The school features:

• A 140,639-square-foot academic building.
• A 40,868-square-foot performing arts center.
• A 36,534-square-foot gymnasium.
• A digital-first library with no physical books.
• Athletic facilities, a football stadium, baseball, softball and soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts and a half-sized Olympic swimming pool.
• Covered outdoor spaces and California-native landscaping.
• High-tech, collaborative learning environments designed to prepare students for college and careers.

During the earthwork phase of the project, Swinerton utilized drone flyovers to analyze and document major earthwork activities across the site, the company told Construction Dive in an email. The drones helped the team monitor schedule progress as well as confirm quantities of dirt for import and export calculations. 

Swinerton also used BIM to coordinate its structural and MEP systems, which helped resolve conflicts prior to fabrication and installation. 

The project was funded by a bond measure passed by Compton voters in 2015 and is part of the district’s “Built by Compton” initiative, which prioritizes local hiring and small business participation, according to Swinerton.