Historic Adamson High School

An American Classical Revival style structure, the W. H. Adamson High School sits atop a hill overlooking downtown Dallas. This historic building was constructed in 1915. However, shortly after construction, the front façade began to settle. During an expansion project in 1938, engineers underpinned the front façade hoping to remediate this settlement issue.

By 2009, the measured front façade settlement was 5 inches and it was feared that continued settlement had occurred and the building needed to be demolished. This was of great concern as historic preservation efforts were underway to allow the school to obtain landmark status.

Datum engineers were brought in and determined that the building settlement had been stable since 1938, except for some slab-on-grade movement that had been erroneously associated with foundation settlement. We provided a cost estimate to level the floor and facade and to repair other deterioration found during the survey. Due to the success of the renovation, the structure retains its original topography which slopes slightly in all directions. In addition, the building was subsequently designated as a Dallas Landmark and is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.