In 2012 Greg Groogan of KRIV noted that the campus, prior to the late 2010s renovation, had experienced disrepair. The school at the time had insufficient facilities for its now larger student body. The 2019 renovation brought the destruction of the West and East buildings that served Lamar since the 1980s. The new instructional building on Babel Street include completely redone educational facilities and premier sports facilities. The school has a large map of Texas on the wall of the performance hall. In 2012 Richard Connelly of the Houston Press ranked Lamar as the seventh most architecturally beautiful high school campus in Greater Houston, saying that it is "[d]efinitely one of the most distinctive schools in town." Architectural style John F. Staub and Kenneth Franzheim, two architects, designed Lamar's original buildings with Louis A. Glover, Lamar Q. Cato, and Harry D. Payne. The design uses a "Z-plan" which has the auditorium and shop wings on opposite ends of the academic block. Jay C. Henry, the author of Architecture in Texas: 1895-1945, write that the construction had "a more avant-garde expression." Research center In 2010 the school announced that it would replace its traditional school library with a coffee bar and electronic research center. The coffee bar is operated by LHS's culinary program. As a filming location The school is seen in the movie Rushmore. In Rushmore the campus is used as the setting for Grover Cleveland High School. Richard Connelly of the Houston Press said that the Lamar building "was ghetto'd up to look like a dilapidated inner-city school." The school was also featured in the Chuck Norris film: Sidekicks. 50th anniversary time capsule On October 17, 1987, Lamar High School and its students celebrated its 50th anniversary by creating a time capsule to teach the students in the future how high school life was like in the 1980s. The time capsule was buried in front of Lamar's main entrance where it lies today. The plaque that marks where the time capsule lies is made from marble donated by the community of River Oaks and fundraising events held at Lamar at the time. The plaque of Lamar's time capsule reads... Lamar High School Fiftieth Anniversary Time Capsule HEREIN LIES MEMENTOS SELECTED BY STUDENTS AND GRADUATES OF LAMAR HIGH SCHOOL IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY, SEALED ON OCTOBER 17TH, 1987. THE CAPSULE IS TO BE OPENED ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY,