Location: Cesar E. Chavez Avenue and Grand Avenue
Function: Educational/Cultural/Public Facility | 950 Seat Public Theater | Conference Room | Event Space | Exhibition Space
Developer: N/A
Architect: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU (http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/) | HMC Architects (http://www.hmcgroup.com/home/entryhome.htm)
Completion: 2008

"In direct vicinity of the downtown Los Angeles cultural corridor with the recently finished Disney Concert Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cathedral Our Lady of Angels the Los Angeles Unified School District is planning High School number 9 as LAUSD's new flagship high school project with emphasis in the Visual and Performing Arts. As such the school campus will include four academies for education in music, dance, theater arts and visual arts, and a theater for 1,000 visitors which can be open to the public. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU's design proposal envisions a tower as a symbol for the arts in the city and a sign for the positive development of the arts, education and our society. As an extension of the public lobby the tower, which on its top provides a conference room, event space and exhibition space with a view across the entire city of LA, will encourage students to have a positive outlook into the future. The tower's sculpture is completed with a spiral ramp in form of a number 9 and two billboards, which are both signage and information interface for the school. (In the design approved by LAUSD for execution the tower will not be accessible.) The crystaline public lobby, with uses as theater lobby or exhibition area - creates the public face of the school towards downtown Los Angeles, while a representational school entrance via a grand open staircase addresses the community. Inside the campus the library in form of a cone is given importance as the ''Space of Knowledge'' and is the focal point of the central courtyard. Circular windows give the otherwise very utilitarian school buildings a distinct expression and - in strategic positions - reveal its inner life to the passer-by." - COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

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September 23, 2007

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Cool! Will it hold that deep, charcoal exterior paneling? :cheers:

Making a School a Masterpiece

Grand Avenue Arts Academy Aims to Sing, Dance and Inspire

By Evan George

Although it will not open for almost two years, passersby already stop and stare at the Los Angeles Unified School District's most beguiling work-in-progress. The boulder-sized ocular windows, a winding helix tower and a library that looks more like a nuclear reactor all make the arts academy at 450 N. Grand Ave. hard to miss.

Officials with the school district say the $232 million High School for the Visual and Performing Arts is 70% complete. Starting in fall 2009, the campus will serve about 1,600 students.

"We'll have it completely finished, furnished and everything by October or November of next year," said Rick Hijazi, senior project manager for the LAUSD. He added that the school could see performances or other events between completion and the first day of classes.

The campus, also called Central L.A. Area High School #9, occupies a 10-acre site just north of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Its location on the northern edge of Grand Avenue - a street that contains structures designed by some of the world's most prominent architects - has raised expectations.

Originally conceived in 2000 as a traditional high school, local leaders, including billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, pressed the district to make it an arts-oriented academy. As a result, the curriculum was retooled to focus on four areas: visual arts, music, theater and dance. Each discipline will be housed in its own building.

Although Downtown Los Angeles architecture firm AC Martin Partners began designing the school, LAUSD reopened the project to an international competition when the decision was made to shift to the arts academy. Ultimately, Vienna-based Coop Himmelblau was chosen to handle the designs. HMC Architects are also involved.

Those behind the project say they hope the school will win the kind of international renown usually bestowed on cultural landmarks like museums and theaters.

"Not only are museums important for art in society, but so are the schools for art," said lead architect Wolf Prix, who traveled from Vienna to lead a tour of the campus last Wednesday. "We came up with the idea that we have to make a statement for art," by making the school "describable and recognizable," Prix said.

The attention-grabbing design goes hand-in-hand with Broad and other local leaders' larger vision to enhance Grand Avenue. The street already contains the cathedral designed by José Raphael Moneo, Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall and architect Arata Isozaki's Museum of Contemporary Art. Other architecturally praised structures on the street include the Colburn School and the Central Library. As well, Gehry is designing the high-rises that will stand out in Related Cos. coming $2 billion Grand Avenue project.

Prix said he thinks tourists who pose for photos in front of Disney Hall will come to admire the school as well. "Expanding the cultural interest in this area, you can do that with architecture," he said.

Form and Function

Finding the 230,000-square-foot facility will not be a problem for tourists or students thanks to the school's tower - a 140-foot beacon that looms above the 101 Freeway just opposite the cathedral bell tower.

Wrapped in a steel helix that resembles an unwound number nine, the tower is meant to establish the school's location from afar, but also to give a unifying sense of identity to students, Prix said. Whether eating lunch in the center plaza or trudging to third period in the sculpture department's glass studio, the tower is visible from most points on campus.

It rises from a 40,000-square-foot theater complex that contains several performance spaces, including a 950-seat auditorium, an intimate black-box theater and an outdoor amphitheater carved into the backside of the building. The theaters are expected to host community events and outside artists as well as school performances.

"If you've been to the REDCAT theater, it will be like that," said Gary Gidcumb, a project manager for HMC Architects.

More than 60 classrooms and loft-style workspaces with 14-foot ceilings are split between two main school buildings that line Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues. Stairways look out to the street through huge circular windows.

A third building will house administrative offices, and the courtyard will hold a generous public plaza that segues into a partially outdoor cafeteria with views of the Downtown skyline. The main entrance from Cesar Chavez is a long, wide staircase leading up to the middle of campus. From the bottom of the stairs, both the tower and the steel-perforated cone-shaped library appear.

Prix acknowledged that questions have already been raised about the unusual design of the library, with some wondering whether the outlandish shape earns the most bang for the district's buck, considering it creates a significant amount of unusable space between the floor and the skylight roof.

"That's the wrong question," Prix said. "A library is a space for trading knowledge. It is the most important space" on the entire campus, he said.

Questions have also been raised about the cost. Originally pegged at $87 million, the price tag jumped to $208 million when the school was reconfigured as an arts academy. Since construction began in March 2005, the cost has increased again, to about $232 million.

About $5 million of the construction and operating costs will be paid by Broad's foundation, according to Karen Denne, chief communications director for the Broad Foundation.

LAUSD's Hijazi said the cost increase was due to "more inspections, more tests" and a rigorous schedule to make certain the facility opens on time. The contractor now works on Saturdays, meaning LAUSD coordinators also had to up their hours, he added.

"This is a lot cheaper than having delays on the project," Hijazi said.

The facility is the latest of three new high schools in the Downtown area built partly to relieve overcrowding at nearby Belmont High.

In 2006, the $160 million Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in City West swung its doors open to 1,900 students. Next September, the long-delayed Vista Hermosa campus is slated to welcome more than 2,000 students, at a total cost of $400 million. Both have received praise from local leaders for their robust architecture.

Still, Prix said something new and remarkable is at play with the Grand Avenue school.

"This is a commitment to the arts from LAUSD," he said.

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Source: Los Angeles Downtown News (http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2007/11/19/news/news01.txt)

"Those behind the project say they hope the school will win the kind of international renown usually bestowed on cultural landmarks like museums and theaters."

This school is going to be the next Juilliard. :cheers:

The interesting thing about this is that in conjunction with the Broadway revitalization project and with our status in the entertainment industry, we finally have an outlet where native Angelinos can develop fine homegrown talent. No more transplants who want an Oscar as soon as they get off of the Greyhound... with this we already have some of the world's best actors/actresses, musicians, and artists who will be born and bred right here in the City of Angels. The seeds have been planted, all we got to do now is wait for the fruit...

^ I feel as if most of LA's talent is imported. Sad.

^ I feel as if most of LA's talent is imported. Sad.

I know so. Don't get me wrong, there are Angelino's out there who do decide to get into entertainment or art, but 99.9999999% time I do meet Angelino's who are doing someting outside of the entertainment industry. However, 99.99999% of the time when I do meet someone who's in the entertainment industry, they're usually out of towners... :dunno:

I'm just happy to see these institutions being built. So eventually we will have a collection of stunning architecture lining Grand Ave. I'd have to say that when I head up Grand from the North off of Sunset you can just see the potential for this avenue to be truly grand.

November 25, 2007

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^ I feel as if most of LA's talent is imported. Sad.

And this isn't true of other cities? A good fraction of the students at the "elite" east coast universities (who go on to professional careers) are themselves imports from all over the country, especially California. California is teeming with talent, so much so that it's overflow spills onto other states.

I go to a medical school in Boston, and there are more students from California than from any other state, including MASSACHUSETTS and NEW YORK. That's saying quite a lot.

this thing sure is going up quick!

And this isn't true of other cities? A good fraction of the students at the "elite" east coast universities (who go on to professional careers) are themselves imports from all over the country, especially California. California is teeming with talent, so much so that it's overflow spills onto other states.

I go to a medical school in Boston, and there are more students from California than from any other state, including MASSACHUSETTS and NEW YORK. That's saying quite a lot.

God bless you, Matt.:)

Editorial

LAUSD on Right Path With Arts High School

The Los Angeles Unified School District is on the cusp of creating an extraordinary building, a worthy addition to the blossoming Grand Avenue. It is a significant accomplishment for a bureaucracy that has endured more than its share of trouble.

Los Angeles Downtown News recently reported on the progress of the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, which is scheduled to open in fall 2009 overlooking the 110 Freeway, across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The design by lead architect Wolf Prix, of Austrian firm Coop Himmelblau, is an attention-grabbing complex, one that will serve the 1,600 students, and potentially change Los Angeles' mind about what a school can be.

Prix is taking advantage of the unique landscape by including a 140-foot tower that is intended to mirror the cathedral's bell tower. The project includes such untraditional elements as massive round windows and a library where the shelves of books give way to airy (and unusable) space that stretches up to the skylight roof.

While one cannot pass final judgment until the school is completed, LAUSD appears to have made the right choice by going with Prix's audacious design. It is a breathtakingly expensive project at $232 million - and that cost is hard to swallow given the district's poor record of educating students - but the LAUSD could be creating one of the most talked-about schools in the nation.

In fact, the school has high standards to meet. At the northern end of Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, it is part of a cascade of developments that flows to the cathedral, the Music Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Colburn School, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and down to the Central Library at Fifth Street. It is adjacent to the planned $2 billion Grand Avenue project, and anything that can continue the momentum of that effort should be encouraged.

The LAUSD has had many past failures and boondoggles, chronicled in this publication and others. But for now, the district appears to be proceeding well on one important project.

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Source: Los Angeles Downtown News (http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2007/12/03/news/opinion/edit02.txt)

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January 1, 2008

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I love the juxtaposition of new expressionist architecture in the context of the cultural district and the civic center.

so I take it that the building will remain black?

February 1, 2008

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Such a cool looking school. I have a feeling this building will make cameo appearances in many tv shows/movies to come.

I was just thinking, can a high school really become one of the country's best educational/cultural institutions for training in the arts?

^^Why not? :)

Fame :)

March 2, 2008

LAUSD High School No. 9

One of my favorite projects in the city.

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March 8, 2008

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The Design of L.A. Unified's New Arts High School Is Convoluted and Costly (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez4-2008may04,0,5283217,full.column)

The design of L.A. Unified's new arts high school is convoluted and costly.

May 4 2008

"What is it?" Kelly Charles asked as he walked to his job as a custodian in downtown Los Angeles and gazed up at a rather odd construction project. "A roller coaster?"

As I wandered the neighborhood, other guesses were:

A ski jump.

A toboggan run.

A water slide.

What's got everyone talking is the odd-looking tower that rises 140 feet above the 101 Freeway, directly across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The futuristic metallic edifice, with a wraparound spiral Dr. Seuss would love, is not part of a theme park. It is the signature adornment on a new arts-oriented public high school that will cost roughly $230 million.

That's far more than the going rate for a more conventional school, but district officials argue that they already owned the site of the former L.A. Unified headquarters. Sure, but aren't these tough times for public schools? Aren't school districts facing huge cuts? Aren't many aging schools in disrepair?

You have to wonder how this will sit with parents who are being asked to contribute several hundred dollars per student to cover programs and staff members that tax dollars used to fund.

David Tokofsky, a former school board member, said he isn't opposed to a bit of a flair on an arts-oriented campus. But given all the budget problems -- not to mention the flailing administration of L.A. Supt. and Navy Adm. David L. Brewer -- the project "just looks like an absurdity," in Tokofsky's words.

Personally, I thought the big log flume was the latest improvement on the disastrous employee payroll system in L.A. Unified. Weekly pay could be sent down the chutes to teachers below, and whatever cash doesn't blow over Chinatown or fly into Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's belfry could be pocketed by teachers.

Come to think of it, stringing a tightrope from the school tower to the cathedral wouldn't be a bad idea. Priests and administrators accused of wrongdoing or coverups could creep across the treacherous divide. Those who land safely in the cathedral's reflecting pool shall be considered saved.

Tokofsky said he likes thinking of the school as the admiral's ark, since Brewer seems to be collecting two of everything as his administration takes on water.

"He's got two superintendents now," Tokofsky said, counting Brewer and the recent hire of ex-superintendent Ramon Cortines, who seems to be taking the tiller while Admiral Aloof re-reads his tattered copy of the book "Good to Great."

"And he's got two general counsels," Tokofsky went on.

We've got two school districts too, I said, if you count the mini-district Brewer spun off to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. And there also seem to be at least two consulting contracts for every problem.

In defense of Brewer, whose name is on a project sign that says "Your School Bond Funds at Work," Arts High was cooked up long before he arrived on the scene.

In fact, The Times reported in 2003 that an ordinary high school with a no-frills budget was being planned until philanthropist Eli Broad lobbied school officials to "redesign the Grand Avenue campus into an elaborate visual and performing arts school" with "a soaring tower." The Times went on to say that it would "cost taxpayers at least $18 million extra and delay construction by a year."

The Times reported that Broad had a behind-the-scenes role in the redesign and the selection of an Austrian architectural firm, and our crack team of reporters noted that the snazzy new high school would nicely complement the Grand Avenue revival that was one of Broad's babies.

Broad denied exerting undue influence over the use of public funds back then, saying he was only trying to help the district build a marquee campus. But the cost of the project has gone from $30 million in 2001 for the standard-issue high school to roughly $200 million more for the new-and-improved version seven years later. The tower rises from a 950-seat performing arts theater, and this part of the project alone is priced at $49 million.

I got a tour of the site Friday morning, with school district officials and architect Karolin Schmidbaur serving as my escorts. The tower calls out and engages the city, Schmidbaur said, asking students and adults to indulge their imaginations.

"It's a symbol," she said, "for dynamic thinking."

If that's the case, I suggest they use the box at the top of the tower as Brewer's new office. Maybe a bird will fly by and tell Admiral Aloof that his job is to educate 700,000 children as if each were his own. That means he's got to inspire teachers, torpedo the deadwood and smack down anyone who stands in his way.

Speaking of the tower, my escorts all seemed to think it would be a good idea for me to climb the rickety staircase to the top. It made me wonder if Mahony was in on a deal to have them push me down the chute and straight into the tomb he's reserving for me in the cathedral catacombs.

The view's not bad up there and, to be honest, the artist's renderings of the arts high school don't look bad. When the school opens in fall of 2009, whether you love or hate the look of it, you're going to talk about it, especially when night falls and it's lit like a beacon.

I don't dismiss the value of investing in a school as a work of public art -- even if it's just a bathtub short of looking like the board game Mouse Trap.

But given the district's budget problems and the extreme needs of roughly 700,000 students, most of whom are poor enough to qualify for reduced-price lunches, a pricey jewel in the glittering Grand Avenue necklace is a badly timed extravagance.

I think I came up with a solution, though, while standing 140 feet off the ground and doing some dynamic thinking of my own.

Can you hear me out there, Mr. Broad?

Reach for the checkbook, pal. At the very least, I'm asking $49 million for the roller coaster.

Or come up with $230 million and we'll call it Eli High.

May 4, 2008

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What a lovely piece of architecture, just the kind of caliber work DTLA needs in it's revitalization.

I was just thinking, can a high school really become one of the country's best educational/cultural institutions for training in the arts?
Not in that area, you're more likely to find students with acceptance of failure, stoic cynicism & unafraid of consequence-that's if the downtown kids there act like the ones shipped to the Westside.

since this is a specialty school, doesn't that mean people will choose to go there, and its not going to be one where just local kids have to go to?

This is a great thread. I've been keeping my eye on this project since it was in the planning stages...

It should be noted that, while this is LAUSD's first performing arts HS, there is already an excellent performing arts high school, run by the LA County Department of Education, aptly called the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, located on the campus of Cal State LA.

I usually like David Tokofsky, but his "the project looks like an absurdity" comment, I think, is very short-sighted. The school is going to be an iconic building. Anyways, there's so much waste in the behemoth that is LAUSD (meaning at the administrative levels, not at individual school sites) that it doesn't really matter.

since this is a specialty school, doesn't that mean people will choose to go there, and its not going to be one where just local kids have to go to?

I don't know if it will be just for "local kids" in the sense of "kids from the neighborhood", since it is a specialty school. It will probably be more like a magnet school, in which all kids from the District will have a chance to go there, with perhaps some preferences for those kids from the local feeder schools.

As far as the tower, I love it, but I'll admit my first thought was: Is that where they're going to throw the bad kids from? :lol:

^^:lol: bad kids thrown into the freeway. :lol:

different perspectives
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I still want to ride that thing :)

230 million dollars...that could have gone into a goddamned subway

230 million dollars...that could have gone into a goddamned subway

Pretty sure money earmarked for education wouldn't be raided to fund public transit.

This school reminds me soooooooooo much of my hometown Ohio's High School.... Luv it!

Not in that area, you're more likely to find students with acceptance of failure, stoic cynicism & unafraid of consequence-that's if the downtown kids there act like the ones shipped to the Westside.

Very interesting perspective...let me mull this one over.

I just love this school! Finally, a state-of-the-art school for the artistic kids!....wish I had the opportunity to have gone here when I was growing up. Had this been a football stadium nobody would have said shit!

September 06, 2008

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Just got a tour from Caroline (the arch from Himmelblau that designed this) for school and IT IS AMAZING INSIDE!!! Pictures soon. The library (the cone building) is really neat. Apparently the tower will not be functional space because funding ran out but she talked the city into still building it so people could recognize the missed opportunity and hopefully pull some more funds in the near future. Don't know if you can see them but there are also huge skylights that form sculptures and run into the cafeteria (based on the north, east, west, south axis). Hmm, theres so much I dont even know where to begin. The public spaces are pretty much all black inside and the theater looks like it twists. You'll see pics soon. :D

Soon to appear in one million commercials, tv shows and movies.

I wonder how much L.A. gets every time they allow the building to appear in ads etc.?

the funny thing too, is its also a public space. Which is actually a really cool idea for a high school but apparently, the theaters will be able to be rented out.

October 28, 2008

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Looks good, looks good...:)

The construction is taking foreverever

November 29, 2008

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As a former professional ballet dancer, I can't wait to get in there to see the studios, theatre, and student productions. I think this is one of the most exciting developments to finally realize itself in Los Angeles. Now, if we could only support a resident classical company...

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flickr Nathan Jongewaard

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All from Flickr, bryan.norwood (http://www.flickr.com/photos/movementofexistence/)

I wish instead of the auto turnabout and those few spaces that there was just a great lawn. Oh well, the building looks "Lost In Space"ish and fantastica!

I wish instead of the auto turnabout and those few spaces that there was just a great lawn. Oh well, the building looks "Lost In Space"ish and fantastica!


The more I look at it, the more it reminds me of something you'd find straight out of an Isaac Asimov science fiction novel.

Oh yeah! Downtown already has the Death Star (Caltrans) and now The Moon Base on Grand!! :lol: Come to think of it, should NASA ever does decide to return to the moon again and establish a lunar colony, this building would probably be exactly how they design and model their moon base from. That cylindrical metallic structure we see will most likely house a rocket launch pad. Don't think so? Yeah, whatever! Just watch and see. LOL :nuts: You'll certainly be seeing lots of it in the future, in a movie theater near you.

Totally space-agey! Ya just gotta love it! :banana: :banana:

Not to rain on everyone's parade, but I'm guessing that unless it's awesome on the inside and uses spaces very well, this thing'll get panned by the critics. It looks like it should be in Eric Owen Moss's Hayden Tract: http://www.pixelmap.com/dma_moss.html

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Most of EOM's buildings that look like this are from over 10 years ago. This place would have been cool in 1998, but in 2008 it looks pretty unoriginal. I mean, I think it's cool that they built this, but even having this kind of architecture for a high school in LA isn't new. Remember Diamond Ranch High School by Morphosis? It was built in 1997:

http://www.ibigroup.com/blurock/projects/high_01_01.jpg

Surely you're not trying to compare that blocky piece of shit with Moon Base? So what, the critics panned Led Zepplin too.

I think it'll be really unfortunate if we have yet another 2008 mega-failure:
BCAM, LA Live, ...is Moon Base next??

Also, I really do personally believe it looks like it belongs in the hayden tract. It looks very 90's postmodern. I don't think this really has to do with Coop Himmelblau being unoriginal, more that in general most architectural buildings today have very little more to say than 90's buildings.

If you don't see the resemblances to these hayden tract buildings.. well, that's your deal:

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No not really.

I think it'll be really unfortunate if we have yet another 2008 mega-failure:
BCAM, LA Live, ...is Moon Base next??



So LA Live is now a failure? As if LA Live was trying to make some sort critical architectual statement for Los Angeles. "Dweeb" pleeze!!!!!

^^ Ok, agreed. But you know what I mean. It just wouldn't bode well if three anticipated large projects this year get critically humiliated. I hope that the critics see more architectural merit in this school than I do (looking at the exterior only).

Also, if they took off the "deconstructing starfighter" along Grand and I think I'd really like this building.

I'm all for whimsy, please don't get me wrong, but this seems not so surprising and already feels very dated. The tower and the volcano cone are pretty nice (I'd have done away with the water slide on the tower...

It just seems as if when it comes to critics they are usually either east or north of here........they hate Los Angeles get that through your head! NYC still has a beef with LA for stealing the Dodgers and SF for being eclipsed. LA grew too powerful too fast, didn't follow the rules of proper citydom, changed like the wind with the times and was a major part of California Dreamin that basically changed the US's emigration patterns for the entire last half of the 20th century. LA is like the "Madonna" of cities. Always panned by the critics yet always popular. It aint in the clique. I mean critics fall all over themselves about Gehry's Bilbao piece but begrudgingly say anything nice about Disney Hall and have the nerve to mention the parking lot across the street as if. "Dweeb" you can't possibly be awaiting for the critics to come around and fawn all over Los Angeles can you? I'll let this one slide and chalk this up to you having a "Carrie" moment. The critics have you all dressed up for the prom.....but watch out for that bucket!

**

It aint in the clique. I mean critics fall all over themselves about Gehry's Bilbao piece but begrudgingly say anything nice about Disney Hall and have the nerve to mention the parking lot across the street as if.

I recently came across an article in the WSJ concerning some hate for Gehry and his latest whatever. Comparing it to the success of Bilbao and something else in Seattle and something else somewhere else, I kept waiting to read about where on the scale of acceptance the Disney would fall on........ mention of it was nowhere to be found....

L.A.'s new arts school an expensive social experiment
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Baylen / Los Angeles Times
Although Central High School No. 9 in downtown Los Angeles has a completed campus, it still lacks a principal, a teaching staff, a curriculum, a permanent name and a method for admitting students.
The campus has long been intended as a local school, mostly serving students from surrounding neighborhoods. Critics say the district's best resources shouldn't be restricted geographically.
By Mitchell Landsberg
9:33 PM PST, December 21, 2008
With just nine months left before it opens, a new arts high school in downtown Los Angeles still lacks a principal, a staff, a curriculum, a permanent name and a clearly articulated plan for how students will be selected -- critical details for a school that aims to be one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States.

Central High School No. 9 does have a completed campus, believed to be the second most expensive public high school ever built in the United States. But the very fact that it offers what may be the finest such facilities in the region has fueled a debate over the district's plan to operate it primarily as a neighborhood school, with fewer than one-quarter of its slots allotted to students citywide.



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Photos: L.A.'s new arts high school... Plan of new high school"This school is built to build the potential that exists within this community, in which we have thousands of very talented students but who lack the social capital and the access to quality arts training," said Richard Alonzo, a former art teacher who now has authority over the school as a local district superintendent. By "community," he was referring primarily to the Pico-Union area that lies just west of the school. Alonzo said the school might intentionally discourage the most talented students from outside the surrounding neighborhoods from applying, lest they hog the spotlight.

That has led some people to question whether it's fair to the wider community -- and if it makes sense from an educational standpoint -- to lavish resources on a flagship arts school that is designed primarily for one section of the city.

"I just think that L.A. Unified rushes to mediocrity," said former school board member Caprice Young, who said she thought the goal should be the highest level of performance, regardless of geography. "As a school district, we need to be honoring excellence."

Few will question whether the campus itself is capable of fostering excellence. At a cost of $232 million, it is one of the crown jewels of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

That's clear from the moment you pull into the multilevel, 300-car garage. Up a broad flight of stairs, the campus' main buildings offer three dance studios with sprung maple flooring.

A professional-quality, 950-seat theater. Music classrooms with acoustic tiling and special whiteboards designed for musical notation.

Floor-to-ceiling windows with motorized blackout shades. Ceiling-mounted projectors in every classroom, allowing teachers to display lessons from computers.

Track lighting in the hallways to illuminate student art. An outdoor atrium for firing Japanese raku pottery. And the school's centerpiece, a conical library whose dazzling interior swirls upward to an off-center skylight.

All that, and a tower that looms over the 101 Freeway like a severed limb of the Iron Giant.

But while the school is physically ready to open in the fall, key operational details remain undetermined. An executive director was hired but quit, and now the school is interviewing candidates for principal.

"I'm concerned -- I will use that word," said Ramon C. Cortines, the district's incoming superintendent. Any school needs at least a year of preparation to open successfully, he said, and a specialty arts school may need more.

Alonzo, who has a passionate vision for the school, remains upbeat and insists that any obstacles will be surmounted.

He said he is close to selecting a principal from among three finalists -- two from the East Coast and one from Southern California. And he has apparently beaten back efforts to wrest the campus from district control and turn it into a charter, a public school largely free of district supervision.

He also believes he has settled the debate over whether the campus will be a neighborhood school or one that attracts the most talented students citywide -- an issue that will define the school's identity.

In its early years, at least, 1,200 of the school's 1,700 seats will be reserved for students from the surrounding neighborhoods, primarily the low-income enclaves of Pico-Union and Chinatown, Alonzo said.

The school, whose name is up for sale for $25 million, has a complicated history that speaks to the ethnic and geographic schisms that run through L.A.'s educational politics. It sits at 450 N. Grand Ave., directly across the freeway from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The site long served as the school district's headquarters and stands at the northern terminus of the Grand Avenue Project, a multibillion-dollar redevelopment of the city's civic and cultural hub.

The campus was initially conceived as a regular comprehensive high school that would relieve overcrowding at nearby Belmont High, whose partially completed replacement campus was temporarily abandoned because the site was deemed an environmental minefield.

Partly at the urging of philanthropist Eli Broad, the district later decided to turn its old headquarters into a flagship arts school that would anchor Broad's Grand Avenue Project and embrace the major arts institutions within walking distance: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the L.A. Opera, the Center Theatre Group, the Colburn School of Music and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The cost of the building, paid largely through school construction bonds, soared once the district decided to make it "world class," district facilities chief Guy Mehula said. Only one other public school in the United States cost more to build -- the Edward Roybal Learning Center. Roybal, about six blocks away, was finished on the abandoned Belmont site after the school board decided it could manage the environmental problems.

The cost of the arts school dwarfs even Roybal if the $190-million cost of moving the district's headquarters and renovating new offices on Beaudry Avenue is included.

No other part of the city is so richly endowed with new schools. Besides Roybal, there is the nearby Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, and the area will eventually be served by the new schools being built on the site of the Ambassador Hotel -- which, at a projected $570 million for an elementary, middle and high school, will be the costliest yet.

Former school board member David Tokofsky said he believed the overcrowding problem had been solved, leaving no need for the school to focus on the neighborhood. He said the school should reach out for "talent from Banning [High], from Pacoima, from Huntington Park."

While on the school board, Tokofsky pushed through a compromise that calls for the arts school to be "open to all District students, beginning with a minimum of 500 students from outside the residential area to grow as space permits."

But Alonzo and others insist that the district has, in effect, a social obligation to make up for decades of neglect in the areas just west of downtown.

"For 27, almost 30 years, these kids have had a 65% dropout rate, a very limited outlook for their future," said Maria Casillas, president of a nonprofit foundation that promotes parental involvement in schools and a member of an advisory board established to support the arts high school. "And I don't know that the cost of these buildings actually pays for the pain and suffering that we have created . . . for these kids."

Alonzo said students at the school may not have the most experience in the arts, but they will not suffer for it. For instance, usually in the case of a school play, "The part's going to go to the kid who shows the greatest talent, and that's not the kind of school that this is going to be," Alonzo said. "This is really looking at building potential in communities that have been underserved, for kids that really haven't had the chance."

While the school might tell star performers that they would likely be happier elsewhere, it won't refuse to accept them if they really want to attend, he said.

In part, Alonzo frames the argument for a neighborhood school in economic terms. Los Angeles, he said, offers well-paying jobs to people in the arts, not just as artists and performers but in back-office and blue-collar roles. The new school will help give disadvantaged students entree to those jobs, he said.

Another key issue is how the students are selected.

Los Angeles Unified already has performing-arts programs as part of its magnet system, and those schools are required to take students without regard to talent. The L.A. County High School for the Arts, on the other hand, requires auditions or portfolios of student work.

Alonzo said the new school will steer a middle course, with students required to get a recommendation from a teacher and to demonstrate their interest in attending. They will not, however, be required to demonstrate artistic ability, since many students in the neighborhood never had the opportunity to study an art form.

The students from outside the neighborhood -- 350 the first year, then 500 -- will be selected in the same way, he said.

He said all students will be expected to attend Saturday classes or summer classes at the school "to give us the opportunity to talk to the parents, to talk to the child, to find out is this really the place where you should be coming to school." He said the classes would start next month.

Ariceli Ruano, chief executive of a foundation that helps Latin American children and an active member of the arts school advisory board, said the selection process isn't clear.

"Is it first-come, first-served?" she asked. "I don't know. And with the local students, there's no application that's been developed that I've seen. . . . I don't really understand, and if I don't understand, I don't think it will be very clear to parents."

Directors of some of the district's magnet arts programs have been watching the progress on Grand Avenue with interest, perhaps a bit of jealousy, and some frustration.

David Way, head of the Academy of Music at Hamilton High School, said there was some "institutional concern" about the new school. Given his druthers, he said, he would rather have seen the district put the resources into its existing arts programs.

Still, he said, "I've never worried, lost sleep, over not getting talented kids. There's three-quarters of a million kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District."

Alan Warhaftig, co-director of the visual arts magnet at Fairfax High, said he wished the new school well but would not be "real happy" if it began siphoning off his best students. But he said the school's new campus wouldn't be enough to attract talent, or ensure a successful program.

"It doesn't matter how large and well-equipped your studios are," Warhaftig said. "The education of artists is not about training their hands. It's about training the mind, it's about training the eye."

He added: "To build something that has coherence takes time, and it doesn't matter if it's an arts program or one that's focused on international affairs or medicine. . . . As much as people would like to reduce it to a formula, it's ultimately an art form."

mitchell.landsberg@ latimes.com

Sounds like some on this advisory board are trying to implement a renegade form of Affirmative Action. But with the cost and lavishness of the school this seems to go farr beyond 'just trying to level the playing field'. I think the school should be open to all students citywide and based on talent. Enhance the art programs in the surrounding neighborhood schools therefore exposing the mainly disadvantaged 'latino' kids while at their home school to the arts and preparing them for the leap to the Arts High School. But because of the cost and the specialized resources that exist at the school this would be a costly attempt at settling the score with the LAUSD by 'latino' educator activists who seem to be at the root of the schools administrative dissaray.

Sounds like some on this advisory board are trying to implement a renegade form of Affirmative Action. But with the cost and lavishness of the school this seems to go farr beyond 'just trying to level the playing field'. I think the school should be open to all students citywide and based on talent. Enhance the art programs in the surrounding neighborhood schools therefore exposing the mainly disadvantaged 'latino' kids while at their home school to the arts and preparing them for the leap to the Arts High School. But because of the cost and the specialized resources that exist at the school this would be a costly attempt at settling the score with the LAUSD by 'latino' educator activists who seem to be at the root of the schools administrative dissaray.


'Klam': You've expressed my exact sentiments regarding this arts school and the discombobulation surrounding the direction of its administrative staff.


If this arts school is indeed, intended as conceived and built - "The crown jewel of the LAUSD". Than it should be imperative to not set geographical constraints as a factor for determining/discouraging worthy applicants. In light of the disadvantaged kids in the immediate area; of course this school should never be simply meant as the LAUSD's version of the Parthenon sitting atop of the 'Grand Avenue Acropolis', catering to only the children of the rich and privileged. But it should be an institution whose aim does not sacrifice excellence in the name of mediocrity and should always be attracting the cream of the crop, regardless of household income levels. And therefore should be allowing only the best, brightest, and most gifted minds in the LAUSD to enroll.

Furthermore, as you've pointed out, due to the lavishness and prodigious resources that is required to maintain this campus, it would make better sense for the LAUSD to incubate a desire for the arts at many of the other satellite campuses; and once students that demonstrate not only the desire to learn the arts but also an overwhelming ability to go along with it, than please do allow them to enroll. Otherwise, it would be a costly experiment implementing students that are not yet prepared to handle a more rigorous curriculum.

If anything, the myopia of the administrators would only continue to paint the LAUSD in a negative light, rather than distance itself as the laughing stock in local education arenas. And it would grow even more clear by the day, the ineptitude of the LAUSD to properly educate students and continue the problematic cycle of mishandling of tax-payer's money, which in the end will lead to even more bastardization of the public's trust in the LAUSD(not that it was very high to begin with).

Los Angeles Unified already has performing-arts programs as part of its magnet system, and those schools are required to take students without regard to talent. The L.A. County High School for the Arts, on the other hand, requires auditions or portfolios of student work.

Alonzo said the new school will steer a middle course, with students required to get a recommendation from a teacher and to demonstrate their interest in attending. They will not, however, be required to demonstrate artistic ability, since many students in the neighborhood never had the opportunity to study an art form.

That person is right that some people may have 'hidden talent' and it really is unfair to require auditions or portfolios for acceptance. What about all the schools that have a crappy or non-existent arts program? The best artist in all of Los Angeles might be in one of those schools, and he/she might not even know it themselves because they have not been introduced to arts. Also, being in an art college right now, I see that really it is not possible to learn/train to be a great artist, it is more like a gift you are born with.

Design for High School #9 realised as building completes


The design by Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au for the Central Los Angeles Area High School #9 for the visual and performing arts has completed and will open in September 2009 for the new term.
Central to the building is the suitably dramatic theatre which holds just short of 1,000 audience members and will be open to the public as well as the 1,800 students providing a public space which was previously lacking in the Grand Avenue area.
Each student is matriculated within one of four academies representing each of the arts disciplines, accordingly there are 4 separate classroom buildings as well as the theatre, the library and the cafeteria making up the seven building campus. Coop Himmelb(l)au’s design concept is to use architectural signs as symbols to communicate the commitment of the Los Angeles community to Art. Like chess figures three sculptural buildings, which relate to the context of downtown Los Angeles and the program, redefine spatially and energetically the otherwise orthogonal arrangement of the master plan. A Tower figure with spiralling ramp in the shape of the number 9 located on top of the theater’s flyloft serves as a widely visible sign for the Arts in the city and a point of identification for the students. Inside the tower, an event, conference and exhibition space with a view across the city is planned to be located.

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All from www.worldarchitecturenews.com (http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com)

I like the theater, small but functional. Minimal decor, cement floor? and acoustic ceiling. Not bad.

I just don't get that horseshoe shaped bridge to nowhere thing... Does it have a use or is it purely for show?

waterslide.... jeeeesh! Some people!

from what I remember, it was supposed to be an elaborate stair case...but the city changed it's mind at the last minute, so it's not going to be used at all....purely aesthetic...* I don't remember where I read this.

^^went on a tour for arch school a few months ago and the architect who worked with this-Caroline-said it was going to be functional but the funding ran out. The firm, good ole Coop Himmelb(l)au, justified the concept by claiming its relationship to our lady of angels and how it ties in to the downtown area. So basically they justified and built a frame and later on will possibly seek funding to make it a functional space. Originally the county wanted to scrap that part of the project all together apparently but they got around it through the concept.

The staircase to nowhere

^^went on a tour for arch school a few months ago and the architect who worked with this-Caroline-said it was going to be functional but the funding ran out. The firm, good ole Coop Himmelb(l)au, justified the concept by claiming its relationship to our lady of angels and how it ties in to the downtown area. So basically they justified and built a frame and later on will possibly seek funding to make it a functional space. Originally the county wanted to scrap that part of the project all together apparently but they got around it through the concept.

A functional what?

A functional non-functional horseshoe-shaped something

^^I guess, to answer all lol. That theater is actually a rental space. The purpose was of the horse shoe was obviously going to be an observation deck (and a very cheap one if you compare the guangzhou observation tower). I want to say the top of the tower was going to be some other space for some type performances and that didn't get the go ahead either. So right now, its just a tall foyer for the most part. The odd thing is, they only put all the money for design into two things and this one never got built. I think they should have scrapped the gym, that thing is terrible, small, and the color is weird. People literally look yellow and green inside of it.

cool!

I think they should have scrapped the gym, that thing is terrible, small, and the color is weird. People literally look yellow and green inside of it.

any photos of the gym? of is it so bad it blinds photographers? :tongue3:

any photos of the gym? of is it so bad it blinds photographers? :tongue3:

Well, the gym is inside one of those square buildings. I do have pics from inside, i just need to load them. Well, haha blinding possibly...odd, definately, I couldn't resist

I'll load the pics sometime this evening...

Discord builds over new downtown arts school
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w194/future_trance011/a-file-arts-highschool.jpgLiz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
A worker shows the view from a classroom at L.A. Unified’s $242-million downtown arts high school.

Only months before it is to open, it has no principal and there is disagreement about who should run it and who should go there.
By Mitchell Landsberg

A tug of war erupted last week over L.A.'s new downtown arts high school, with some of its biggest supporters declaring that they had given up on the Los Angeles Unified School District and wanted the $242-million campus turned over to a charter school organization. In response to the critics, who included philanthropist Eli Broad, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines shot back: "There is not a for-sale sign on it."

The tension had been building for months, fueled in part by the district's plan to reserve most of the school's seats for students from the surrounding neighborhood rather than open it up to the most talented students districtwide. It bubbled over after two star principals from the East Coast turned down offers to take charge, leaving the school leaderless less than six months before it opens in September.


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Graphic: A look at the school

"This pace is so slow that we have lost total confidence that the district could open this school in September as a really excellent place for students," said Maria Casillas, president of Families in Schools, a nonprofit organization that encourages parental involvement in education. She is on the board of Discovering the Arts, an organization created to support the downtown arts school, and was on a design team for the school until she recently resigned in frustration.

Casillas and others have reached out to Judy Burton, the president and chief executive of the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, a successful charter organization, in hopes that she could run the arts school with Board of Education approval. Burton, a former top official at L.A. Unified, said she would do so only in partnership with the district, and with the blessing of Cortines and board President Monica Garcia.

Cortines declined to comment on the idea, but he has said he does not want to turn the school over to a charter organization now, although he would consider letting staff convert it to a charter after it opens.

"Everybody sees the opportunity to have this beautiful building at no cost, and they want it," he said in an interview. The school, designed by the Austrian architectural firm of Coop Himmelblau, is both striking and filled with amenities that are rare for an L.A. public school, including a state-of-the-art theater, ceramics workshops, ceiling-hung projectors and track lighting.

Cortines complained about an e-mail he said he received from Broad that was disclosed in an article in the Downtown News. Cortines said Broad told him that if the district did not give up control, "the school is deemed to be mediocre and a failure."

The superintendent, clearly stung, said he wrote back to Broad "that in my career, I don't think I've ever done anything mediocre nor have I been a failure." He said he was surprised by the tone of the e-mail and complained that Broad has never followed through on a promise to pay for the school's iconic tower, which overlooks the 101 Freeway.

Through a spokesman, Broad declined to comment on his exchange with Cortines or to discuss the school, which he has long championed.

Garcia said she wasn't opposed to the idea of a charter, a public school that is independently run. But she said she was pushing to open it as a district school. She said it would be much more independent than most traditional high schools and would have a less-restrictive teachers' contract.

The first sign of trouble at the campus came last summer, when the school's new executive director -- hired early to oversee hiring and planning -- quit. The school district decided then to focus on hiring a principal and heavily recruited the head of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., Rory L. Pullens. He had been expected to sign a contract in January but backed out because of a family crisis.

The district then turned to its No. 2 choice, the principal of the acclaimed Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York, better known as Fame.

After showing strong interest, Principal Kim Bruno visited Los Angeles -- and promptly pulled out.

In an e-mail to The Times, Bruno said she decided to stay at LaGuardia "because I am already very fulfilled both personally & professionally," and insisted that there was "nothing in particular" that had turned her off to Los Angeles. But Cortines said she was concerned that there "was not a clear direction" at the school, and Casillas said she had been "very, very concerned and quite anxious" about working with the L.A. Unified bureaucracy.

Pullens said in an interview that, as a native Southern Californian, he had been strongly drawn to the challenge and to what he called "arguably the most amazing facility that has ever existed for any arts school in this country." Pullens' Washington school operates in partnership with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and he said he had been excited about the opportunity to create a school that could work in tandem with the Los Angeles-based entertainment industry.

He said that although his family issue shaped his decision, he also had deep concerns about whether he would have the freedom to run the school free of the district's daunting bureaucracy. He also was worried about how little time remained before the school opened. Ideally, he said, the principal should have been hired at least a year before opening.

Richard Alonzo, the local district superintendent who oversaw the school until Cortines stepped in, said the district has set a deadline of April 14 to find a principal from within district ranks. Meanwhile, he has been hiring lower-ranking staff, and the school is processing student applications.

For Casillas and a group of other influential community members, Bruno's withdrawal was the last straw, leading to the calls for the school to become a charter. She said they also were alarmed because L.A. Unified had been slow to reach a deal with the teachers' union over a contract for the school.

United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy said he signed an agreement last week that would put the arts school under the same "thin contract" that exists for other schools in the area around Belmont High School. Under that contract, Los Angeles Unified has given schools flexibility in staffing, budgeting and curriculum.

The arts school, still known by its working title, High School No. 9, has a long and politically tortuous history. Originally conceived as a regular high school to help relieve overcrowding at Belmont, it morphed into an arts school at the urging of Broad, who saw it as a companion piece to the Grand Avenue redevelopment project he was pushing.

That led to a dispute over whether the school would serve the most talented young artists, musicians and performers in the city or just those in the surrounding neighborhoods of downtown and Pico Union, some of the poorest parts of the city. So far, the neighborhood option has prevailed, although the school board ultimately ruled that 300 of 1,700 seats would go to students from outside the immediate area.

Even that question has become politically charged, because the area once served only by Belmont High now has three high schools. Some believe the district has overbuilt and should open more seats in the arts school to students districtwide. But district officials say enrollment in the area is on the rise.

mitchell.landsberg

@latimes.com

The superintendent, clearly stung, said he wrote back to Broad "that in my career, I don't think I've ever done anything mediocre nor have I been a failure."

Supt. Ramon C. Cortines needs to be fired! His handling of the art school is already a failure.

What a catastrophe this will be for the Los Angeles Unified School District, if this ship is not righted in time for the art school's opening this Fall. This type of indecisiveness that is malingering in the higher ranks of the LAUSD, is exactly what continues to erode away any little confidence the public has for this school district.

Hand over the keys, SUPE! And turn this gem of a school into a charter school already!!!

LAUSD sucks.
First they botch the multi hundred million dollar belmont school.
then they trash the ambassador site.
Now they fumble this.

The WHOLE DAMN LOT OF THEM SHOULD BE FIRED.

The LAUSD is a HUGE ineffective bureaucracy that should be dismantled. It exists to perpetuate itself, not to educate children. Furthermore, the distribution of funds is totally unfair. Taxes from some communities are stolen to provide for others. The result is a lackluster education for all.

The real idiot on all of this? Villaraigosa. That wimp failed at his attempt to reform the LAUSD and now is hostage to it. Sickening.

Tell LAUSD

finish that waterslide/bridge so it can cross the 101 freeway, and connect to the cathedral, and turn it into a catholic school :okay:

School Design Standouts

Published: Friday, September 18, 2009 6:09 PM PDT
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Something unexpected has occurred in Downtown in the past decade: a community that once was severely underserved in terms of high schools now not only has a plethora of options, but boasts some of the most impressively designed education institutions — public or private — in the city.

The opening this month of the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts has drawn international attention. The Grand Avenue campus stands out on its own, but when taken in the context of two other additions from the past three years, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, it is clear that in terms of school design, no community in Los Angeles can rival Downtown.

This is an odd twist, to be sure. But it is appropriate given the growth of the neighborhood. Downtown Los Angeles in the past decade has seen an array of architecturally impressive structures, among them Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Caltrans headquarters and some of the residential properties that have sprouted across the community. Even if the schools were not originally planned to accent the other growth, it makes sense that they should be held to high standards.

The first of the new schools to come online was the Contreras facility in City West. Designed by the respected Chinatown-based firm Johnson Fain, the $160 million facility opened in 2006. Two years later the Roybal school debuted (following years of delays and a name change from the Belmont Learning Complex). The 10-acre public park adjacent to the box-like series of structures is the key element that elevates the place to something special.

The standout, naturally, is the arts school. Designed by Wolf Prix of Austrian firm Cool Himmelb(l)au, it is thrilling to some and puzzling to many. Architectural features swirl and swoop, and the $232 million price tag does indeed draw gasps. But there has been a lot of bang for the bucks, as many of the exteriors and interiors are exciting and appropriate for a school whose raison d’être is to educate and inspire all forms of creativity.

A decade ago this pocket of architectural standouts would have been impossible to imagine. But the Los Angeles Unified School District, and former Superintendent Roy Romer, under whom the massive LAUSD construction program got its start, have helped create something that merits recognition. It has required a tremendous financial expenditure, yes, but Downtown has three great-looking schools that mirror the community of today.

Let’s hope the quality of education measures up to the design.

page 4, 09/21/2009

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Looks old

it's the black and white image. In real life it looks amazingly new and modern. :)

I know :D

I love that design. Can't say that about the Roybal school around the corner.