The facility will be host to more traditional programs such as Auto Mechanics, Collision Repair, Welding, Machine Tool Technology, HVAC, Electrical, Carpentry, Building Facility Maintenance, Masonry, Plumbing, Culinary Arts, and Cosmetology. In addition to the traditional programs, students will have the opportunity to explore other options such as Vocational Agriculture, Graphic Design, Law and Public Safety, Medical Assisting, LPN, Coding, and Aerospace Engineering. Students will also have the option to take associated classes at their home high school or have the option to remain at the Career Center the entire day and take all their classes at that location.
The facility will also have a multipurpose room so students can meet all their PE credits, meeting rooms for events and countywide meetings, and a full kitchen and dining area for students, as well as a rooftop dining space. Collaborative spaces for students to gather are scattered throughout the facility.
Graduates can also attend as a year fourteen student and participate in several selected programs. The facility will also be open after school hours for hobby classes and adult programs.
The existing painted masonry façade will be clad in multicolored metal panels and horizontal windows. The existing main entrances will be removed and reimagined with a two-story glass façade that stretches into the existing building and terminates into a lecture stair adjacent to a live green wall. The two-story entrance corridor will be the focal point of the interior space, highlighting the classrooms that overlook the entrance corridor. All classrooms and lab areas will have a glass entrance to showcase the technology and career learning that goes on inside the space.
This is a groundbreaking project for Cabell County Schools and education design in West Virginia that reimagines an abandoned retail store into a career academy, showcasing technology and career education for high school students and adult education.