Planning & Design Meetings Neighborhood Meeting #1 2/2/2009 - MinutesGUNN HS MP COMMUNITY MEETING No. 1
Palo Alto Unified School District 02 February 2009
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DRAFT | DRAFT | DRAFT
GUNN HIGH SCHOOL MASTER PLAN
Palo Alto Unified School District
MASTER PLAN COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 1
DATE: 02 February 2009, 7:00 pm –9:00 pm
SUBJECT: Master Plan Meeting with Public Audience
ATTENDEES: See attached sign-in sheet
The following are the highlights of the meeting:
1. Principal Noreen Likins discussed the purpose of the evening:
• For the architect to bring the public up to speed on what has been discussed in
the master planning meetings so far
• For the public audience to ask questions and add input
2. Architect Erwin Lee described what has happened in the master planning process
so far:
• Reviewed existing documents
• Had a series of site walks
• Had six meetings with the Facilities Steering Committee
• Created a series of site plans that reflect the needs of Gunn High School
3. The four key elements to the master planning process were outlined:
• Educational program needs
• Growth structure – how to house the growing number of students
• Infrastructure and maintenance needs
• Enhancements and upgrades to the existing site
4. Lee highlighted the master planning goals of Gunn High School. These goals are:
• Replace the existing Titan Village portables with a new, 28-building classroom
2-story building
• Demolish the existing music and choir building and construct a new performing
arts building that is adjacent to the Spangenberg Theater - for direct access and
resource sharing between the departments (e.g. the green room)
• Create an identity to the existing Spangenberg Theater by creating an entry
court that shows off the theater and enhances way-finding from the parking lot
• Replace the existing student activities center with a new, 2-story student center
that houses a conference center and central copy space, in addition to student
activities space
• Add two classrooms to the science building and create a connector to the
existing science/office laboratory building
• Build a second gym to be used primarily as a teaching space adjacent to the
new pool complex
GUNN HS MP COMMUNITY MEETING No. 1
Palo Alto Unified School District 02 February 2009
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• Reconfigure the parking lots to be more efficient and ease traffic congestion on
site by elongating the exiting cue and drop-off lane
• Create a protected, accessible visitors parking lot adjacent to the current
administration building
• Create an enclosed, textbook storage room in place of the locker room/cage in
the L-wing adjacent to room L-11
• Add six classrooms to the L-wing adjacent to the world languages classrooms
• Make the existing teacher’s lounge the entry to the school and create a café
edge that opens into the quad. Move the teacher’s lounge to the south side of
the administration buildings and add a staff patio that faces the library
• Create a turnaround with perpendicular parking and auto gate for controlled
access on the west service road
• Create protected bike paths with strategically placed bike parking throughout the
site
5. Mr. Lee stated that what is shown on the presentation drawings is diagrammatic
and represents design intent only; the actual design and configuration of the
proposed buildings will occur during later phases of the project.
6. Two, 1-story site plans were presented. These site plans showed both a single-
loaded classroom configuration and double-loaded configuration. Lee discussed the
amount of space that would be required for single-story construction and outlined
the advantages and disadvantages of 1 and 2-story construction. He stated that
building new 2-story buildings conforms to the main goals of the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by preserving permeable surface on the site.
7. Lee discussed the next steps in the master planning process. The following items
must be addressed in the three remaining Facilities Steering Committee Meetings:
• Discussions about budget issues
• Prioritizing needs and phasing construction of proposed buildings
• Implementation and scheduling of project construction
• Determining infrastructure and maintenance needs
• Finalizing documents to bring to the School Board by the end of March 2009
8. The meeting was opened for public comment. The highlights of the comments and
questions from the public audience were:
• What is the disadvantage of the double-loaded, single-story classroom
configuration?
o Lee explained that this configuration eliminates cross ventilation capabilities
and does not maximize daylight exposure to classrooms
• There have been studies done that correlate day-lit classrooms with higher,
student test scores
• Are the neighboring corridor residents aware of the dimensions of the proposed
new gym? Why does the footprint appear bigger in the one-story model; how tall
will it be?
o The footprint of the gym would vary between the 1 and 2-story options; the
estimated height of a new 2-story gym is 25’-0”. the gym will be strategically
placed, according to neighbor input in the master planning process
• Have the number of bike riders been considered? Are the proposed bike parking
areas placed close enough to the center of campus?
GUNN HS MP COMMUNITY MEETING No. 1
Palo Alto Unified School District 02 February 2009
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o We have been working with the traffic group to survey riders. The goal is to
keep the bikes on the perimeter of campus, while getting the bicycle parking
areas as close as possible to classroom buildings
• Are there any carpool drop-off areas in the plan?
What is shown on the site plan is a general idea of how the drop-off might be.
Carpool drop-off can be considered
• How will the bike paths be separated from pedestrian paths?
o The paths will be designed with safety in mind, but may not be much
different than they are now.
• What is the distribution of students between the Palo Alto and Gunn High
School?
o Both schools have a projected growth of 2,200-2,300 students
• We should consider a two-story parking lot and make the west access a drop-off
turnaround.
o We don’t think that a parking structure should be considered at this time.
• Is the 1-story model more expensive? This option should be explored more.
o Gunn campus has limited space due to existing easements and the main
goal is to minimize sprawl and preserve open space
• Stanford should be researched as a model for Gunn High School to eliminate a
lot of vehicular traffic. There should be disincentives for driving to school
o There is an increasing number of bicycle riders on campus. One day, there
were an estimated 630 bicycles counted. Currently the major disincentive of
driving to school is the cost of the monthly parking pass.
• What will happen to parking capacity when student body grows? The ratio of car
parking to student body should be considered.
o The parking lot will be reconfigured to be more efficient and the CEQA traffic
study will consider the car to student ratio
• Please consider separating accessible van drop-off from the standard drop-off
for safety reasons
• Can there be a student drop-off along Arastadero Road?
o There will be a full blown traffic study to address strategically placing drop-
off zones
• Will the access to the quad from the science building be blocked by new science
classrooms?
o No. There will most likely be a pass through, or perhaps a science
gallery/lobby space
END
Prepared by Dean Schmitz of Deems Lewis McKinley. Please advise if you feel that any of the above items
are inaccurate or need further clarification or detail.
cc: Attendees
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