Durham School of the Arts (DSA) on Friday will break ground on its new location in north Durham.
The groundbreaking ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. at the new location at 3000 Duke Homestead Road.
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Speakers will include Superintendent Dr. Anthony Lewis and members of the Durham Public Schools Board of Education.
The new DSA would open in the next two years in the fall of 2026. Once construction is complete, DSA will move out of its nearly 100-year home at 400 N. Duke St. in downtown Durham.
The $240 million project has been on the books for some time, and Friday marks the first step in construction.
In 2023, School Board Chair Bettina Umstead said, "When I first heard the number, I was like, 'whoa!' But then I reminded myself, we're talking about 2,000 students, [grades] 6 through 12, in a brand new space."
Umstead said the new price tag for the building is high, but worth it.
Features in the new building will include:
- A consolidated campus centered around a single outdoor courtyard
- A music building with consolidated band, orchestra, piano lab, and guitar classrooms with a new 800-seat concert hall
- A theater building with dance, drama, choral, and theater tech classrooms plus a 150-seat black box and a 500-seat theater
- A gym building with a high school and middle school gym, weight room, training room, offices for coaches, and separate middle and high school locker rooms
- A new counseling suite located adjacent to the cafeteria and media center
The proposal calls for the new school to be three levels, with middle schoolers on the second floor, and high schoolers on the third.
The new building will feature 108 classrooms, about three fewer classrooms than the current building in downtown Durham.
