By Lookout Staff
March 11 – School District officials on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious $235 million master plan for Santa Monica High School they say will usher in the next 100 years for the century-old campus.
The plan will replace Samohi’s Tech and Science buildings, add a new 3,000-seat football and baseball stadium with synthetic turf and provide as many as 1,880 new parking spaces. It also will upgrade the Greek Theatre and carve a tree-lined promenade through the campus linking the Pico Neighborhood with the Civic Center.
Attended by some 75 community members, Tuesday’s presentation -- entitled “Samohi Today and Tomorrow” -- also served as a pep rally to mobilize the education community to call on City officials to pitch in Redevelopment Funds for the ambitious venture. The City is currently developing its plan for the Civic Center across 4th Street from the high school.
The School District, said Superintendent Tim Cuneo, wants “to offer the City of Santa Monica the gift of our campus” to create an expanded Civic Center “joining the city’s most important civic buildings” with the 96-year-old campus.
The District plans to use $97 million from the $268 million bond approved by voters in 2006 to bankroll the lion’s share of the new Tech and Science Buildings adjacent to the current north parking lot.
Construction of this new state-of-the-art building, new temporary softball field, new parking lot and access ramp, and new quad is scheduled to begin in November 2010 and be completed in March 2013, District officials said.
The campus master plan, which is being developed by Samohi staff and R. L. Binder Architecture and Planning, “expands opportunities for shared public use of its facilities and links the campus with the Civic Auditorium Campus,” according to District officials.
The plan “will provide Santa Monica with one of the jewels of a new Civic Center” and reintegrate the campus that opened in 1913 “into the community it serves,” officials said.
In partnership with the City, the School District will embark on the following Civic Center Joint-use Projects:
- A new Michigan Avenue Promenade that will again open Michigan Avenue
between 7th and 4th streets to pedestrian and bicycle access when school is not in session. Cuneo called the tree-lined path “magnificent,” saying it was “one great stride that would benefit everyone.”
- The location and orientation of the current football field will shift to the current site of the baseball and soccer fields and will include a synthetic field with full CIF track, field house with concession stands, and a 3000-seat stadium.
- The baseball and soccer fields, as well as the basketball courts, will occupy the current site of the football field and will be lowered to the level of 4th Street, better connecting it to the community.
- A new regulation-sized, lighted soccer field with synthetic turf will be placed at the site of the current north parking lot and Science and Tech building with a quad that will feature a new “green” gathering place.
- The north and south gyms and pool will be demolished, reopening the vista that once existed from the steps of the History Building to the sea. The new gyms and pool (with floor-to-ceiling windows facing west) will be located under the new soccer field.
- The Greek Theatre will be upgraded with new restrooms, a redesigned cafeteria, a new field house and a new open frame proscenium with ocean views beyond the stage.
- A new semi-subterranean parking structure for some 490 cars will be built under the football field. A second parking level under the football field will add approximately 490 more spaces.
- A new subterranean parking lot with some 450 spaces will be built under the baseball/softball fields, and a second level could be constructed adding approximately 450 more spaces to accommodate future needs of the Civic Auditorium Campus.
All of these facilities would be available to the community during non-school hours or when not used for school practice or games under a joint uses agreement with the City.
The agreement, which was first negotiated in 2004, pumps some $7.5 million a year in City funding to the cash-strapped school system in exchange for public use of school facilities. (“City, District Launch Negotiations,” January 28, 2009)
“The opportunities for broad community-based activities on this new Civic Center open a cornucopia of new adventures for the 21st century for the city and the region,” District officials wrote in a statement.
District officials are currently preparing a complete phasing and funding timeline report they will submit to the City Council acting as the City’s Redevelopment Agency Board at a meeting next month.
District officials will then craft a formal five-year implementation plan based on the council’s input.
Lookout columnist Frank Gruber contributed to this report
