PROVIDENCE — The city’s new career and technical high school will include a 60,000-square-foot athletic complex with a 200-meter track, three basketball courts and an indoor soccer field.

On Friday, visitors had a chance to tour the 296,000-square-foot Career & Technical Academy, which incorporates the existing Hanley Career and Technical Center on Fricker Street. The new athletic complex will serve as a venue for intramural and interscholastic competition, with room for 1,000 spectators.

When completed in September, the athletic facility will be open to the city’s other public high schools, especially those 1,000-plus students who attend schools with limited athletic facilities, said school spokeswoman Christina Reilly. In addition, it will serve students who are interested in track but have no place to train.

“None of the other high schools have regulation tracks available,” Reilly said after Friday’s topping-off ceremony, in which a small Christmas tree was hoisted on top an iron beam. “The basketball courts can accommodate a large audience. The ultimate goal is to be able to host events rather than pay rent elsewhere.”

Several of the city’s largest high schools hold their graduations at private facilities such as the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. With the new complex, they can hold them in-house. In addition to track, basketball and soccer, the facility is flexible enough to be used for football and baseball practice during bad weather and the infield can be used for volleyball or tennis.

Beneath the athletic complex, Providence-based construction company Gilbane is building a mall-like space with a student café, culinary arts program, cosmetology salon and school store.

Next door, the old Hanley building has been transformed from a series of warren-like rooms into a building full of natural light. The new Career & Technical Academy is very green, with solar and thermal water heaters, LED lighting and low-flow fixtures that will save an estimated 30 percent in water usage.

The top floor features a wireless library with no books; instead, students can access 80 laptops and a Smart Board, an interactive, electronic whiteboard. When finished, the school will have a recording studio and a television station for students interested in studying electronic media.

Even the drab walls have been replaced with rich primary colors. Project director Bill Bryan said that Gilbane wanted to reflect the tastes of the district’s culturally diverse student body, whose children speak about 40 different languages.

And, in an effort to make every possible space a learning experience, the ceiling is exposed so students can literally see how the building is put together.

The school will offer nine career paths: carpentry, automotive, electrical, graphic communications, culinary arts, plumbing, heating and ventilation, construction and cosmetology. Each student will graduate with a high school diploma and industry-recognized certification in his or her chosen field.

The $90-million Career & Technical Academy, which includes the athletic facility, is part of a $790-million proposal to renovate the city’s aging school buildings. On Friday, the city’s director of administration, Richard I. Kerbel, stressed that the bonds for this project and the $35 million Nathan Bishop Middle School renovation have not been jeopardized by the meltdown in the financial markets.

The state will reimburse the city for at least 80 percent of the total construction cost, possibly more because the school department is building such an energy-efficient facility, according to Alan Sepe, the city’s acting director of facilities.

lborg@projo.com