Hurricane Intermediate School

Before they were selected for the Hurricane Intermediate School project, Hughes General Contractors had already set an impressive precedent in southern Utah’s Washington County School District. Their integrally colored Tilt-Up buildings, designed to complement the area’s sandstone hills and red soil, had already won three TCA awards.

For this project, Hughes relied on the same theme, but set the 134,000-sqare-foot structure apart by using different depths of sandblasting to create texture and color variations on individual panels, and also cast a 30-foot-long image of a jaguar (the school’s mascot) into walls in a commons area using polycarbonate molds.

Other notable features include aluminum joint covers designed to prevent vandalism to the caulking, as well as curved, hanging lintel panels supported by cast-in-place concrete columns.

To meet the project’s demanding summer construction schedule, Hughes received permission from the city of Hurricane to start work prior to the 6 a.m. noise ordinance, with some pours starting as early as 2 a.m. to avoid scorching summer temperatures.