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For Skanska, making the grade in September and October came with a slew of educational wins.
The Stockholm-based builder and developer announced on Oct. 1 that it had signed a $163 million contract with the University of Mary Washington to build a new theater and renovate it beaux arts buildings in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The complete project scope includes site development, infrastructure, core shell and interior fixtures for a new 293-seat multi-story theater, which will encapsulate approximately 68,230 square feet. Skanska will also renovate 82,000 square feet in the existing fine arts buildings and build an 8,950-square-foot addition to the campus.
Work has begun on the project, with an expected completion date of February 2030.
Across the country at the secondary level, Skanska will also build a new onethree-story, 350,000-square-foot high school with classroom capacity for 1,600 students.
The contractor announced Monday that it won a $110 million contract from the Renton School District in Renton, Wash., to build the new school. The project includes core classrooms and learning environments for vocational and technical education, as well as health services, community areas, a library, cafeteria, gymnasiums and floodlit sports fields.
Skanska has started work on the project and expects completion in the fall of 2029.
Also in the West, Skanska signed a $78 million contract modification with an undisclosed existing client, the firm announced Monday. The project will replace an existing school in the same location as the previous building. Work on this project has begun, with completion expected in 2029.
All three of those wins came before the bell signaling the end of the third quarter, and Skanska will include them in their Q3 bookings.
In another illustration of its education footprint, Skanska announced on Sept. 30 that it had begun construction on Sumner High School in Seattle. The contractor is overseeing Phase 2 of the multi-year three-phase larger high school expansion project in the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District.
In 2024, local voters approved a $737 million bond measure to expand student capacity and fund improvements throughout the district, and local news outlet KIRO7 set the Summer project in 412 million dollars. The contract value for Phase 2 is $67.1 million, Skanska spokeswoman Daniela Arellano told Construction Dive via email.
The first phase added three central campus buildings, a library, a 12,000-square-foot common area and technology upgrades, according to the release.
In Phase 2, the project team will construct a new three-story, 103,000-square-foot building that will house about 50 classrooms and a variety of special education and CTE program spaces. Specialty areas of the building will include a greenhouse, robotics, aerospace manufacturing, CAD and digital design classrooms, early learning classrooms, a culinary arts kitchen and a daycare space.
The final phase will add a performing arts center, gym, swimming pool, music rooms and athletic fields.
Phase 2 of the school, first built in 1911, will be completed in the fall of 2028, according to Skanska.
