Lewis Central Community School District has finalized plans for a fine arts and construction technology education addition to Lewis Central High School.
The Lewis Central Board of Education approved plans and specifications for the project during a virtual meeting Monday. The school district has budgeted $30 million for the project.
The addition, which will attach to the high school commons area, will feature a 33,775-square-foot auditorium that will seat 1,100 people, making it easily the largest such facility in Council Bluffs. In comparison, the main theater at the Arts Center at Iowa Western Community College seats 655, the Abraham Lincoln High School auditorium has room for 500 audience members, the Thomas Jefferson High School auditorium holds 450 and the main theater at the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center can seat 280.
The district will seek waivers from the city to allow it to make the fly loft above the stage as tall as that of a professional theater and the orchestra pit deep enough that it will be on the floodplain level. Seating areas will include a balcony and an elevator to take patrons to that level, said Kelley Rosburg, architect for BVH Architecture.
