Detroit's oldest and most architecturally interesting school buildings, Southeastern High School is getting new life thanks to some $43 million in new construction and renovations.

The school, with a student population of 1,500, re-opened to students this month as the three-year project moved toward completion. Southeastern students had been taught at nearby Foch Middle School while the high school has been undergoing renovations for the last three years.

Devon Industrial Group has been construction manager on the project. Working with its subcontractors and the building trades, the 1915 building was extensively gutted and renovated, and some 80,000 square feet of space was added to the building for a total of 318,000 square feet.

"It has been a good experience to renovate part of Detroit's history," said Devon Project Supt. Don Windsor. "But the old school was out of code and in terrible shape. And it's difficult to know what you're getting into with these old buildings until you start tearing things open." In addition, "selective" demolition of the school's interior, which he said included the old gymnasium, took about six months.

The renovation and addition at Southeastern High School will transform it, says the Detroit Public Schools, "into a premier high tech education center providing a range of teaching pathways preparing students for professional and technical automotive careers."

The project includes an automotive technology center, new parking and outdoor athletic facilities, a new cafeteria, a new gymnasium and complete interior renovations.

"The renovation and new construction at Southeastern High School will have a tremendous impact on the community as a whole," said Brenda Gatlin, principal of SEHS. "It will be a state-of-the-art facility with cutting-edge technology and improved instructional space. This community deserves it."

In addition to the cleaning and repairing of the beautiful brick-work on the building's exterior, an unusual set of architectural features inside the building was also retained: six drinking fountains. Throughout the years, various classes sponsored the construction of Pewabic tile enclosures around six drinking fountains in the building, as gifts to the school.

The drinking fountain enclosures had to be taken out as part of the renovation process, but the school wanted them put back, intact. Saving the drinking fountains was the pet project of Patrick Staskovic, of Tile, Marble and Terrazzo Masons Local 32 and Artisan Tile.

He said the drinking fountain enclosures were photographed, gently removed in pieces, marked, and placed in buckets. After new plumbing and wiring were set in the walls, Staskovic said "like a puzzle" the fountain enclosures were put back together in the school's renovated hallways. "I learned quite a bit about Pewabic tile," Staskovic said. "I learned that they're well made and that they last. We cleaned them up and they looked like they were made yesterday."

Approximately 130 trades workers toiled on the Southeastern High School renovation project. "We had a real good group of people here," Windsor said.

THE CLASS OF '53 donated this Pewabic Tile drinking fountain enclosure at Southeastern High School. Doing the restoration work on this and five other drinking fountain enclosures at the school was Patrick Staskovic of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1Tile Setters and Artisan Tile.

Detroit's Southeastern High School, built in 1915, is one of the city's oldest and most ornate schools. Devon Industrial Group, its subcontractors and the building trades were wrapping up the renovation of the building earlier this month.