Samo's 25 year construction plan for future

Since the establishment of Samo there has been constant construction in order to make the school a more pleasant place. Now, after more than 100 years in constant operation, the school’s construction plan has begun to take a different approach, with a main focus on reforming and modernizing the campus.  The modernization plan at Samo has begun taking shape with the temporary softball field, which will last no more than 20 years. Along with that, the current construction plan starting next year will consist of eight different phases. The idea of dividing all the phases and not doing everything at once is intended to have more control over the changes happening while making the process as unintrusive as possible to the students. Samohi Director of Projects Alan Braatvedt explained the features of the school’s plan.“The idea of developing different phases is to make sure there’s enough funding to support the construction. If we were to do everything at once, there would be major disturbances within the school boundaries, possibly needing to relocate all the people working here to a different campus,” Braatvedt said. “For this reason, we hope that by diligently going through the plan step by step we will reduce the likelihood of making stupid errors and avoid any obstacles in our way.”    Conditions at Samo have certainly changed over the years before reaching a state of maximum expansion in its location. As of now, new campus modifications will only be possible by removing and relocating buildings and other school facilities. Any reforms going on require the relocation of facilities to make space for new construction. The focus now seems to rely more on reforming and modernizing the campus itself rather than looking for more extended local areas to start all over again like it has done various times in the past. However, starting from nothing again would imply a waste of millions of dollars invested in recent school facilities throughout the last years. The first two phases are expected to be initiated next year with the tearing down of the Technology and Science buildings so space can be made for the recently named “Discovery” building. This building is intended to give room to hundreds of students with a total amount of 30 classes. It will house the M and O houses, physical science and Project Lead the Way labs. Following that, the next step is the addition of a new cafeteria, a 50 meter swimming pool and the provisional block of classes located right next to the tennis courts, so students with classes in the future demolished buildings will not be affected. Chief Operation SMMUSD officer Carey Upton revealed the future construction changes.“We are planning to transform the campus over the next 25 years to the optimal learning facility for our 21st century students,” Upton said. “Mostly every building on campus will change or be replaced. This modernization was initiated with the Innovation building, Centennial Plaza, parking lot and ramp, softball field, bicycle parking area and landscaping, which began in 2011 and have all been completed.” Although the final date given to the end of phase one (PH1) and PH2 is fall 2021, some time before this gets finalized the design of PH3 and PH4 will already be happening. During those stages, the school will reach its peak with the most changes. PH3 consists of the demolishing of the old buildings that by that time will have been replaced, the tearing down of the History building and South Gym and the incorporation of a new house with a new library included. Following that, PH4 will create a new Art facility and Samo parking.At this point, the genuine purpose of the 20 year plan will start becoming more visible inside the campus. “Essentially, the school’s main objectives are the preservation of two significantly historical buildings at Samo; the English building and the Barnum Hall, and for that to happen, they need to go through some updating processes,” Braatvedt said. In addition, the final and probably most important focus of the plan is the last phase (PH8) that will have the greatest impact on not only Samo students but the whole city of Santa Monica. “Every time there’s a big football game, whether it’s for homecoming or a different event, hundreds of students have the necessity of moving to the SMC stadium to watch their football team playing,” Upton said. “However, with phase nine, the school will have its independent stadium and not depend on outside facilities.”