A Farewell Toast

No, not from me, although the anonymous person who submitted an unpublished comment would be disappointed.

Over on lebodesign.net, Dan Rothschild published his final comments on Farewell Toast.

Finally, as we are nearing the end of the year, and are coming up to a season of toasts, I offer the following toasts in regard to the design of our new high school:

May the loading dock on the front of the building not be too visually disturbing;
May the trucks backing in and out of the loading dock not be too disruptive or unsafe;
May the new traffic pattern looping around the perimeter of the south parking lot not be too annoying;
May the walk to the new athletic pavilion not seem too far away;
May the demolition of Building C not be too sad;
May the demolition of the existing tennis courts and construction of new tennis courts not seem too wasteful;
May the substitution of metal for glass on the exterior in order to save money not seem too industrial;
May the replacement of durable materials for less durable materials not result in excessive maintenance costs;
May the lack of clustering the academic departments not have a drag on collaboration between departments;
May the walk between classrooms not be too excessive so as to lengthen the time between classes;
May the circulation pinch points at the corners of the Student Commons not be too severe;
May finding the isolated Science department in their own building not be too difficult;
May the moving of the entire Special Education department off-site not label us as being insensitive to special needs;
May the relocation of the School Psychologists off-site not diminish the relationships between these professionals and their students and parents;
May the large discrepancy between the low bid and second bid on the General Construction not result in an undue amount of change orders increasing our costs;
May the expansive amount of site work not uncover too many hidden underground conditions;
And, may the multiple prime contractors on the project not subject our community to a litany of delay claims and litigation.

Finally, finally, the mission of this blog was to focus on the design of the high school. With the recent acceptance of the construction bids, the design is finally complete, and so is this blog. I want to thank all of my neighbors and friends, design professionals, members of the Community Advisory Committee, and a few of the School Board members who have offered their support and encouragement. It was very much appreciated.

Daniel Rothschild

Thanks Dan, for helping us play an active role in the redesign of the high school renovation.

Can we afford to get it wrong?

The following comes from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.

After reviewing the minutes of the PTA's October 2011 meeting this entry caught my eye. Specifically the item highlighted in bold and blue. Following the project closely I then remembered Dan Rothschild's comments about the redesign on his blog Ledodesign.net which seems to present a different opinion. I've highlighted his comments in bold green. Shouldn't the PTA have questioned Dr. Steinhauer's assertion?
This is a huge financial undertaking for the community. Can we afford to get it wrong?
Anonymous

Mt. Lebanon City Council of PTA

General Assembly Meeting

October 5, 2011

3rd Vice President – Tim Steinhauer:  PSSA & other test results are being received by administration.  This allows for comparisons of our student achievement with other districts.  High School showing high scores for SAT & ACT.  HS Renovation project is moving ahead.  Bids will be received in November.  Most changes to the plans will not be visually noticeable with the exception of 1 floor being removed from the new building G (Science).  Interviewing for a Campus Manager at the HS.

From Lebodesign:

Clear Circulation: F
The current school has challenging circulation. One way to analyze circulation in the design is to look at classroom-to-classroom circulation patterns. This represents about three-quarters of a student’s path during the day. The initial design placed three levels of classrooms in the historic Building B and three levels of classrooms in the new Building G on the other side of campus. Travel distance between Building B and Building G is actually greater than the existing paths, a poor start to solving circulation problems. When the project was redesigned, the number of floors in Building G decreased to two levels, and the number of floors in Building B increased to four levels. Two of the floors in Building B are now totally disconnected from Building G, causing additional stair use. Simply stated, the classroom-to-classroom circulation is worse in the new design than existing conditions. This may cause the administration to add time between periods in order to allow students to get to their classes safely. 

Clear Circulation

Aesthetics: Incomplete
Architectural design should always include aesthetics as a criteria. The boldest and most interesting part of the design is the glass bridge that spans Horsman Drive and connects the athletic complex to the rest of the building. Adjacent to the bridge is the new rear entrance, which has looked very impressive in some of the renderings. Also of design interest is the large expanse of glass at the new pool that was shown in renderings. During the redesign process, it was stated that glass was replaced with metal panels in certain areas to save money. I recently requested the Board release before and after renderings of these major design areas that were changed. They have not yet done so. It is difficult to determine if these glass-to-metal changes are acceptable aesthetically, if the architects have not presented renderings that show the changes. As far as the rest of the design is concerned, the new long and low athletic building with its randomly-spaced slit windows, and the mostly repetitive façade of Building G (without the individual window sunscreens that were eliminated due to cost), it may simply be stated that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. 

"December 7th, A Day of Infamy"

Dan Rothschild added a new post on his blog titled, "December 7th, A Day of Infamy." The School District will be publicly opening the sealed bids from bidders for the renovation project at 1:30 p.m. on Pearl Harbor Day.
Please check out his blog posting December 7th, A Day of Infamy.  Dan goes into more detail about the seven separate bids and the challenges that go along with separate prime contracting.

Don't forget to vote this Tuesday!!  We have three incumbents running for School Board. Keep this fiasco and the 10.5% tax increase in mind when you cast your votes.

Creative Accounting

Over on Lebodesign.net, Dan Rothschild posted Raiding The Pantry. After reviewing "THE LIST" of 197 cuts to the project, this architect feels that "the Board may also be misusing the process of Add Alternates and Deduct Alternates in their quest to come under the $113 million requirement."
If you watched or listened to Monday's School Board meeting, Dan questioned where the $900,000 is coming from to pay for the food service equipment that was cut (#187A.) Good question.  It comes from Jan Klein's bag of tricks.  After all, the directors are being told by Ms. Klein that they "should" still be able to do this project without needed referendum.
Larry, are you still excited that Celli is excited, even after all this input?

Buildings B and C: Collaborative Partners

Dan Rothschild has a great post on his new blog, lebodesign.net.  In his post, Buildings B and C: Collaborative Partners , Dan writes how the CAC was inspired by Dr. Davis' 45 minute lecture where he said that by arranging departments side-by-side, the opportunity for interdepartmental collaboration increases.

The CAC was energized by this talk, and how it meshed with earlier discussions by high school staff, that a great amount of learning in high school happens outside of the classroom.  Using this information, the CAC proposed a paradigm shift in the design that suggested moving the classrooms located in the new Building G to the existing Building C.  This not only placed all of the academic departments side-by-side, as discussed in Dr. Davis’ talk, but allowed the development of a collaborative zone in between the two buildings in the bridges that currently connect Building B to Building C twice on each floor.

It is unfortunate that the School Board will not revisit Building C. Larry Lebowitz was quoted as saying, "We need to obtain as much public input as we can." Dan Rothschild wants to revisit Building C.  The CAC wanted to keep Building C. We have talked about it here on Lebo Citizens. Keeping Building C has been discussed on Blog-Lebo. We have pleaded at School Board meetings to keep Building C. Are you getting enough public input, Mr. Lebowitz, or are you on public input overload? What WILL the School Board do with all this public input? We all know the answer to that question. 

Newsflash: The School Board needs as much public input as possible.

The Trib wrote an article this morning about Dan Rothschild's new blog, lebodesign.net.

Well-known architect seeks public say on Mt. Lebanon renovation

"He wants to play a role; he wants to help. ... We should and we will take advantage of that," said school board member Larry Lebowitz, who had not yet been appointed to the board when the advisory committee made its original recommendations. "We need to obtain as much public input as we can."

Tom Moertel was quoted as saying, "Right now, after having been stung so badly by the bids, the school board may be receptive to reconsidering its previously unshakable beliefs."

I am not seeing it, Tom.  I also don't understand why there aren't any links to lebocitizens.com where one can also hear podcasts of architect's updates on Dan's new blog.  My email went unanswered.   I am also confused as to why I get 400 hits a day on this blog and only get a handful of votes on the polls.  Maybe people are worn out trying to give input to our local government.  As Giffen Good had stated, "It really doesn't matter that the board's decision doesn't sit well with us."