Planning & Design Meetings Meeting #5 1/7/2009 - MinutesPALO ALTO HS MP MEETING No. 5
Palo Alto Unified School District 07 January 2009
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PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL MASTER PLAN
Palo Alto Unified School District
MASTER PLAN MEETING NO.5
DATE: 07 January 2009, 3:15–5:00 pm
SUBJECT: Master Plan Meeting with Palo Alto HS Facilities Steering Committee
ATTENDEES: No sign-in sheet available
The following are the highlights of the meeting:
1. As an introduction, architect Erwin Lee reviewed the master plan site diagrams that
were presented at the last meeting. The highlights of the presentation were:
• Demolish the current student center and build a new, two-story student center
with a double-story volume attached to the Tower building.
• Build a new, two-story Media Arts building with flexible spaces adjacent to the
English classroom building.
• Build a new Performing Arts complex with theater adjacent to the Haymarket
Theater.
• Take all classroom functions out of the Tower Building and replace with offices
and support programs.
• Build a new, two-story classroom complex adjacent to World Languages (400)
and Math (700) building with flexible space for the Adult Education and
Industrial Arts Programs. This complex would also house two new science labs.
• Demolish the existing “Girl’s” Gym and build a new gym with an infill building
connecting the new gym and the existing “Boy’s” gym together. The connector
building would house the weight room, fitness center and exercise room. It
would also provide a lobby to the new athletic complex.
• Locate all bike racks along the east and west sides of the campus, so that the
bikes no longer obstruct courtyard paths. Lee advised that the inverted “U” bike
racks would require more space than the bike racks that are currently used.
• Possible to provide additional space in the new gym for custodial use.
2. After reviewing the master plan, Lee presented a revised classroom distribution
diagram based on information from the last meeting. Discussion of the diagram
included:
• Remove Guidance from the original library and restore the library to its original
condition. The restored library could be used as a meeting room or “alumni
hall.” Guidance could move to another location in the Tower Building.
Guidance would like to have a classroom locate near it. The second floor of the
Student Center could provide this opportunity.
• The new Student Center should have room for student leadership.
• The new diagram showed math moving to the second floor of the new building.
• The new diagram showed world languages in the ground floor of the new
building.
PALO ALTO HS MP MEETING No. 5
Palo Alto Unified School District 07 January 2009
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• The 400 building was shown as a combination of social studies and world
languages.
3. After the presentation of the new site layout diagram, Lee asked for additional input
regarding the needs of individual departments. The following were comments and
suggestions by the steering committee:
• The Math department likes their current location. They need to be together in
the same building because the classes are shared by the teachers, and there is
constant dialogue between classrooms during the day. The dynamics of the
math culture on campus would change dramatically if the classrooms were
spread out.
• The Social Sciences department also needs to have dialog between classrooms
during the day, and would like to stay in their current building.
• Some Media Arts classrooms are also used for English, as they are shared with
the English department.
• Classrooms should be rearranged so that each department would have its own
building.
• The library should house support programs (Test Center, ARC) and all computer
labs. This is good for supervision of the equipment and after-hours student
testing.
• The Academic Resource Center is in a good location because it requires
supervision, but needs to be larger. The library could include a shared
conference center and a silent reading-room space.
• Student Leadership needs a home. This could include a student store,
workspace, and office space adjacent to the Tower building.
• The Media Arts department would be willing to sacrifice additional office space
for gallery space to show student work.
• Custodial services might need a larger space than they currently have.
• Flexible spaces need to be programmed into the master plan for emerging
programs and student body growth. The focus for these spaces should be on
the Media Center and the Career-Tech department.
4. Lee indicated that what he is hearing from the departments is that the building
configuration of classrooms arranged around a central common core is more
important to how the curriculum is taught than the need to provide single loaded
classrooms with windows on two sides or the need for cross ventilation. He went on
to say that the building configuration that the departments want is the same
configuration that they have but larger. For the next iteration, he will show the
classroom building in this configuration.
5. Principal Jacquie McEvoy discussed the needs of the departments, excluding the
Special Education department, as summarized by her meetings with them. Further
information is needed from the Special Education department, as they have not yet
reported their needs to the committee:
• The English and Social Sciences departments are okay with their offices moving
out of the library.
• The Math department wants to stay where they are and would like additional
classrooms in an adjacent building.
• AVID would need a new location if moved out of the Tower building.
• There should be no classrooms in the Tower building; it should become more of
a student and administration center with support programs.
PALO ALTO HS MP MEETING No. 5
Palo Alto Unified School District 07 January 2009
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• The Guidance department should stay in the Tower Building for convenience.
This location makes it easy to meet with college representatives and parents.
Visitors shouldn’t have to go across the campus for appointments.
6. There were many comments about the location of the new theater. Lee advised that
this project is still in the preliminary, master plan phase and that the current
placement of the theater is only a suggestion that it occurs in this general area. He
offered the following:
• A programming phase will occur which will determine the specific needs and
requirements of the theater design.
• The size of the theater will be determined by the seating capacity.
• The theater placement and orientation will be determined during the building
design phase and after the program for the theater has been developed.
• A new theater placed in the courtyard would create many conditions that would
be difficult to supervise. The theater walls would become obstructions in the
courtyard.
7. The meeting was opened for public comment. The highlights of the comments and
questions from the public audience were:
• There is great confidence that DLM, in collaboration with the facilities steering
committee will design a great theater. This design should be a good example of
visual arts for the kids, and should welcome guests to the campus.
• The amount of brainstorming and effort put forth by DLM and the facilities
steering committee is impressive. The departments should be kept together, the
bike parking should include security cameras and be located along the east and
west side of campus. The deck should be removed from the courtyard space to
reclaim the “quad”.
• The entrance to the school should make people in awe of the great campus that
Palo Alto High School is. A new theater seems unnecessary when an expansion
of the current Haymarket Theater would seemingly suffice.
• The theater should not turn its back on Embarcadero or the entry to the school.
Other locations and options should be investigated.
• The effort put forth in the master planning so far is admirable. This is a great
opportunity to make a fabulous theater building. The performing arts should be a
central part of the campus.
8. Next Meeting is scheduled for 21 January 2009 at 3:15 pm.
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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