Aerial rendering of the future Career Institute North at Walnut Hill. Photo courtesy of Peter Ramstedt (Turner Construction).

Demolition at Walnut Hill Elementary will begin in April, according to a press release.

Peter Ramstedt, a vice president and construction executive at Turner Construction Company, applied for a building permit to demolish parts of the building at 10115 Midway Road on March 17.

The demolition is one of the first stages in the project to convert the school, which was damaged in the tornado in 2019, into the future Career Institute North at Walnut Hill. (Currently, Dallas ISD’s Career Institute North is located in a warehouse building north of I-635 on Midway Road.)

Photo credit: Danny Fulgencio
dfulgencio.com

Turner Construction Company is collaborating with Source Building Group to complete the project, and Dallas ISD selected WRA Architects to design the plans.

According to the release, construction will include 50,000 square feet of renovations and about 117,000 square feet of new construction that will connect the existing structures.

The project seems to be on schedule. In an informational session hosted by DISD in January, WRA Architects said the design was supposed to be completed by spring so demolition could begin, and the finished campus is scheduled to be finished by spring 2023.

The original single-story, Spanish-style building and auditorium were built in the 1930s, with masonry on concrete frame additions made in the next two decades and a final addition completed in the 1990s.

When it’s completed, the school will be used to instruct students in a variety of career pathways, including aviation, automotive, construction and design, fire fighting, EMT, cyber security and health science.

Read more: Walnut Hill Elementary recognized by America’s Language Working Group for trilingual instructionÂ