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TESTIMONIALS
Community members, residents, alumni, students and experts ask the school board to
save the History Building and study adaptive reuse.
I am a tax-paying resident of Santa Monica. 2 of 3 children have graduated from Samohi with one currently enrolled.
We don’t need to spend this money and destroy a historical building. Spend the money on improving classroom experience. Reduce the size of the classrooms. Offer a more robust agenda. There are many ways to better educate our children without needlessly knocking down a historical building and building something new.
Think also of the environmental footprint. Is this structure not valuable if renovated? Do we need to knock it down, ship it to landfill and buy new building materials?
Smells like big business taking priority to the community and the students.
I thought we were an eco friendly city???
Why can't we repurpose the History & Art Buildings at SAMO Hi instead of tearing them down?
Is your current plan really the best way to spend our tax dollars?
As a Santa Monica citizen, please insure my taxpayer dollars are not wasted
DO NOT tear down Samo History Building if this building can be repurposed
This building needs to be saved!
Everything old gets torn down; there is no history. No point of reference.
The interior of that building is so unique and once again, money is being wasted for something that doesn’t need fixing.
Put the money to better use: helping w/ college scholarships, tutoring for low income students, whatever
But to just tear down the building is ridiculous. How many school interiors have an art gallery? Money can be made from it for filming,
Just ridiculous to do something that isn’t even needed to be done.
Please save the Samohi History Building! We are astonished, from the perspective of a family of generations of Samohi alumnae, that more of an attempt to honor the history of Samohi is not being made. There are significantly less costly alternatives to destroying these buildings, and rather restore them to safety but preserve their inherent value. A lot of us have children who deserve knowing what came before them.
Please consider our voices and do the right thing for the people who care with our hard-earned tax dollars. Newer is not always better.
Folks both of my children were full-time students at Samo high and that building, revitalized, will be as useful as any new building twice the millions cost.
There is history in the History Building that is valuable: Each time a new student or seasoned teacher walks that through those doors and down the hallway, the experience is valuable. Go there, experience it. Much learning takes place within those walls.
Please don’t erase it!!!!!
Please consider the decreased cost it would take to save the historical arts building at Samo high, and use the more creative adaptive plan! It is so progressive to incorporate the old with the new, and will help save substantial costs.
The History Building is central to the identity and architectural integrity of the SaMoHi campus. As an architect and planner I can assure you there are many solutions to incorporating the building in the school’s planned modernization and expansion program. Demolishing this historic Works Progress Administration icon would be a sore loss to our architectural heritage and inventory, and to our community and its collective memory, as well as an embarrassment to the City’s reputation, and a certain regret.
Please insist on saving the History Building.
STOP NEEDLESSLY OVER-SPENDING OUR TAX DOLLARS AND SAVE THE HISTORY & ART BUILDINGS.
Students are sick of living in a major destruction/construction site, creating an unhealthy environment with poor air quality and constant noise pollution.
Remodeling the site is a far better and cheaper option.
Please do the right thing for the children and show them how we preserve precious resources. We try to teach the next generation the 5 Rs, including reuse and repurpose, yet we show them how to be wasteful. Bad example...
I will save you the time about money, data, research, corruption, etc.
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Almost certain you’ve heard all the talking points.
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Just stop. No wonder Malibu wants out.
Please look at alternatives to keep history intact, and spend to make the biggest impact.
I went to SAMOHI in the 1980's (graduated 1986) and some of my most impactful moments of high school happened in the beautiful History building. I had an English teacher, Mrs. Farmer, who was such an inspiration, she encouraged me to enter a city-wide poetry contest and I won second place. I sadly watched the space shuttle Challenger explode on live TV in History class. I was asked to the prom in the upstairs hallway.
I am a current resident of Santa Monica and I do not approve of destroying this landmark at the tax payers expense. This repurpose plan below sounds like the ideal compromise. Please reconsider!
Stop wasting tax payer dollars destroying our history. Keep the SaMo arts and history building. Re use it, make it a unique and creative part of our history. So much waste and destruction negatively contributes to our environment and community. Please give future generations an opportunity to experience how we worked and studied and lived before. Keep this building and add to it and integrate it with new structures. Use you creativity, challenge yourselves to come up with a better solution than to tear everything down.
Please add me to the list of those who OPPOSE the costly proposal to tear down the history and arts buildings at Samohi and support adaptive reuse of these buildings. As another though, you should adapt your overall budget to better maintain the buildings you have so you will less likely feel the need to replace them.
Respectively, I understand wanting to update and improve Santa Monica.
We have so many school buildings in disrepair I can’t imagine why our elected officials would not consider the taxpayer dollars being spent on a new building as opposed to repurposing a historic building.
I would absolutely vote no on this and not want my tax dollars used this way.
Thank you for your consideration of the constituents.
It was very disturbing to learn at the last board meeting that the cost for the Exploration building and new gym will be around 50/50, about $82.5M for each.Â
Manhattan Beach is building an athletics complex for $39M right now that was approved by taxpayers through a specified bond in 2019. This sports complex will be double the size of the one at Samohi.Â
Could the Exploration building be scaled back and reworked a bit so that the Nationally recognized history building could be converted into what best serves the students?Â
The public has the 29M rough construction estimate on the history building and the market price of 39M for athletics complex. Maybe a gym, scaled back version of Exploration and history used for library, student center and or more learning spaces could be arranged for $165M?Â
Could an alternate estimate be obtained?Â
It seems strange to spend 165M of public funds without alternate estimates.
I'm a Santa Monica resident writing to express my horror at discovering that SSMUSD intends to demolish the last remaining historic buildings on the campus of Santa Monica High School. With the few historic resources remaining in the city, I'm stunned that such a proposal would even be considered in 2021.
The lessons here for SAMOHI students are that 1) the heritage of their city does not matter, and 2) the environment does not matter, as demolition and new construction is being chosen over an environmentally friendly restoration.
If you're not ashamed, I'm ashamed for you.
It has come to my attention that demolition of this building will be in June, and yet you continue to ignore pleas from residents and alumni to save it and save money by doing so. Renovation estimates are to cost $29 million but new construction will cost $165 million! Furthermore, the pending demolition of this building has gained national attention, as it has been spotlighted in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's spring issue of Preservation magazine.
I support saving this irreplaceable historic building and ask for a study of adaptive reuse and renovation of the History Building. Please do all you can!
Before spending $172M of taxpayer money, please perform due diligence and hire a preservation expert to explore the costs and possibilities around the adaptive reuse of the historic buildings on prospect hill. Buildings can be retrofitted, converted to state of the art spaces suitable for 21st century learning, while saving time and money. This is why LAUSD has a policy in place for such best practices. Some of those funds can be redirected to other campuses in dire need of improvements. Instead, cultural resources are being destroyed in the district.
I will no longer vote for unspecified bond measures on the ballot if these wasteful practices continue!
Please consider the decreased cost it would take to save the historical arts building at Samo high, and use the more creative adaptive plan! It is so progressive to incorporate the old with the new, and will help save substantial costs.
I do not want the history building at Santa Monica High School demolished. I think it is important to keep historical landmarks. Both of my children attended Santa Monica High School and do not want that building destroyed. And my best friend, Pat Cady, a teacher there and track coach for MANY years ( who passed away in 2019) would be appalled to know you are planning on destroying that building. Please listen to the people.
I am a Santa Monica resident, homeowner, parent, taxpayer, and voter. Â Needlessly destroying historic buildings to grossly overspend on new development is obviously a bad idea and waste of money. Â I hope someone in the District or on the Board or the Council will take a time-out, use some restraint, and reconsider what they are doing.
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