After winter break, students and staff can expect to see foundational steel structures above ground for the new performing arts area. According to Assistant Principal Toby Steele, the new performing arts area will include a piano music theory lab featuring end-user technology and increased space.

Music theory student and sophomore Oliver Zhu said he looks forward to using the new technology in the renovated lab.

“There’s going to be a lot of newer technology in there focused towards collaboration with duets or different ensembles with the pianos,” Zhu said. “Right now, a lot of the functionality that (my teacher) used to have with the collaboration functions are kind of old, and the pianos themselves are also very old.”

Meanwhile, Steele said architects are finalizing the design of the performing arts area while workers are anticipating the potential arrival of steel within the coming month.

“There’s all this stuff that you don’t physically see with your eye that is very important to the project,” Steele said. “And then all of a sudden, there’s this time where construction actually begins, and we start seeing steel being set and walls going up, and that’s where things become very real.” By Lorna Ding.