Project Profiles

Modernizing a High School Through Facade Design

Using perforated fins, careful alignment, and plenty of school spirit, this high school in Texas turned its mascot into a highly visible architectural feature

Hutto High School Modernization Phase III is part of a campus-wide, multi-pronged renovation project in Hutto, Texas. Ultimately, improvements to this school for grades 9-12 will include enhanced facilities for fine arts, robotics, health sciences, auto mechanics, and agricultural mechanics and welding, as well as a new competition gym and improvements to other architectural finishes. As part of Phase III, the school had a unique vision for how it would display its mascot on an architectural feature on the building’s front facade, but needed help from CS’ BetterBuilt Studio™ to turn that vision into something tangible.

Challenge

At an introductory meeting between CS’ Architectural Product Solutions team and the project’s general contractor, Chaney-Cox Construction, it wasn’t yet clear what they were designing. The team had an original graphic image that Pfluger Architects had created with Hutto Independent School District, and not much else.

School officials knew that they wanted Hutto High’s logo prominently displayed on an architectural feature that would wrap around the building, but figuring out how to achieve the right look was a process. Initially, airfoil blades were considered, then fins, then, finally, perforated fins. But since the perforated fins needed to bend around the corners of the building and the logo needed to be visible from multiple angles, the graphic image had to be perfectly designed to line up properly.

Construction Specialties, Inc.

Solution

Just in time for the new school year, Phase III was completed in August 2025. The Hutto Hippo greeted students on their first day, looking down from Facades by Design™ custom vertical perforated sunshades. Installer Floyd’s Glass secured 158 fins, totaling 3400 square feet and standing 20' tall. Each fin was wrapped in a custom terracotta color that matches the base color on the building’s metal panel.

To ensure the hippo and words appear correctly to visitors, the angle of the fins and the spacing between them were tightly coordinated. The result is a unique effect that makes the logo visible whether viewed from north to south or south to north. And, once inside the building, the perforation allows students to still see out the windows that are installed behind the fins.

When ideas and concepts meet the expertise of BetterBuilt Studio, even a hippo can take center stage in architectural style.