Architects hired to brainstorm about Cubberley

Uploaded: Thursday, February 2, 2012, 4:10 PM                                             

Architects hired to brainstorm about Cubberley
Future of Palo Alto community center will be subject of community meetings in 2012

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City and school leaders have engaged architects to do informal, preliminary work on ideas for the Cubberley Community Center, Palo Alto school district Superintendent Kevin Skelly said Tuesday, Jan. 31.

In a report to the Board of Education on the progress of talks about the future of Cubberley, located at 4000 Middlefield Road, administrators said the architects -- Gelfand Partners and Group 4 Architecture, both of San Francisco -- are "coming up with some very rough and preliminary notions of how that site would be used."

Group 4 has worked on the city's libraries, and Gelfand has designed renovations of many campuses in the current facilities-bond program, including the new, two-story classroom building at Ohlone Elementary School.

City and school staff members were to have a conference call with the two architectural firms Thursday, school facilities and bond program manager Bob Golton said.

"It's just to kind of warm them up, get a notion of ideas for what might go on that site," Golton said.

Skelly said he's been meeting monthly with City Manager Jim Keene and Assistant City Manager Steve Emslie on the city's and district's joint interest in the former Cubberley High School, currently leased by the city for use as a community center.

They plans to convene a "community advisory committee," probably in mid-March, with broad representation of interested parties, including neighborhood associations, recreational users, PTAs, sports leagues and the senior citizen community, Skelly told the school board.

— Chris Kenrick

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Comments

Posted by Not-Happy-With-Group-4, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 19 hours ago

There is something wrong with the City's continued association with Group 4. It's time to use another architect. The library that is being constructed on Middlefield is certainly looking like it will be more ugly, and vastly too large, than not.

It's time that someone take a long, hard, look at the cronyism that seems to be well developed between the City Manager's officer, and Group 4.

Posted by Paul Losch, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, 19 hours ago

I am on the City of Palo Alto Parks and Recreation Commission. While this matter is still in relatively early stages, it is clear that it will be a proverbial elephant in the room. Our Commission talked about it briefly at a recent meeting, and the surface was hardly scratched.

The school district is largely in the driver's seat on this issue, since most of the property is PAUSD owned. The use of the campus as a school site again has not been thought through, and there are alternatives that can potentially serve the need for a 3rd high school and conccurrently provide community services would be a great outcome.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 19 hours ago

I don't understand how architects can decide how Cubberley could be used. I thought architects were given instructions on how to design a building with a list of what facilities were required. Have they been given a list of requirements? This sounds like the cart leading the horse to me.

Posted by JA3+, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, 18 hours ago

Perhaps it's wise to demolish any and all existing structures and start anew on a small scale, with two story structures suitable to PAUSD's current use.

I'd likely suggest selling all remaining land -- that is, all land other than that needed to satisfy the siting of the buildings discussed in my preceding sentence -- and using the proceeds to construct additional two-story buildings on existing PAUSD school sites, including, but not limited to, Cubberly.

Posted by Doesnt pass smell test, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, 17 hours ago

Not-Happy says it clearly, something doesn't smell right in the City Manager's office connection with Group 4.

They just rehired a company that had a FOUR MILLION DOLLAR COST OVERRUN on Mitchell Park Library.

Something really really is not right. Newspapers should investigate this.

Posted by Mark, a resident of the University South neighborhood, 17 hours ago

Could they explore the possibility of using the new site (whatever they build on it) as an alternate Emergency Operations Center in case of disaster? (i.e. Essentially, if there is a conference room, they make sure to wire it up and have a backup generator.) Might help to build some redundancy for preparedness.

Posted by another resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 3 hours ago

Resident, No, it was the cart leading the horse on the high school construction, school board officials have said as much -- trust the professionals to tell us what to do. That whole interaction was far more suspicious than the library, I think. This s a different architect. Seems to me they did a pretty good job on the library. And there's nothing wrong with getting ideas. I thought this architect was far better at taking ideas and incorporating them in a good design. I think the cost overruns are the contractor's issue, or is it that much overrun on the design? (Of course the contractor is going to try to blame the architect, but a contractor at that level should have enough experience to question a serious omission from the start.)

Posted by Mom, a resident of the Greenmeadow neighborhood, 3 hours ago

Please make the third high school, but a special one. A high school for STEM and/or Art at Cubberley. There are quite a few of that kind in other area in CA and in other states. Just not here yet.

Some PA teacher told me that PA parents would push their students even more if we had such a school, but I don't think PA parents are that foolish.

I just want my kids to have a real lab available in/after school with proper adult supervision. At this moment, due to all the regulations, they have to apply for competitive applications in order to get an intern position in far away universities. Science summer camps are so expensive. My kids are not disadvantaged enough or smart enough to get into the Stanford programs. We are not Stanford professors who can let their kids to work in their labs.

In "Cubberley high school for STEM" I hope they have a project based science class with capable and willing teachers for the purpose.

Posted by Not-Happy-With-Group-4, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 1 hour ago

> I think the cost overruns are the contractor's issue, or is

> it that much overrun on the design?

Yes, and no. In the construction industry, there are always many players having input into decisions. The architect is supposed to provide a complete plan to the initiating party (a plan that can be constructed without OMGs [Oh My God] popping up). The party funding the construction project has an obligation to check the plans, because once they are "signed off", then the project is now the initiating party's problem. The contractor, of course, needs to do a comprehensive plan check, in order to estimate the project--expecting to make a profit when it is completed.

In the case of the library, the initiating party was the "City" (which is staffed with unaccountable individuals) who assume that all of their mistakes/errors/omissions will be ignored by the taxpayers, who will simply dig deeper into their pockets to put good money after bad.

Clearly the City of Palo Alto P/W officials failed to do adequate plan checking, prior to signing off when the Architect/Mechanical Engineers claimed that the "design is complete".

Most construction projects include a hefty "contingency" line item (15%-25%), which allows for cost overruns that do not end up being overly obvious. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to tack how often these contingency funds are used, since most construction projects are in the private sector, and the books closed to the prying eyes of the public.

Posted by Casey, a resident of another community, 1 hour ago

Don't forget the important campus bike connections!

Posted by Paul Losch, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, 1 hour ago

My understanding from City Staff is that despite the change orders, the Mitchell project will be done under the original budgeted amount, and have improved traits environmentally. This is due to the lower costs of materials and construction as a result of our wonderful recession.

Until Main Library renovation is completed, it will not be clear what the final cost of the entire endeavor will be. At this point, despite cjange orders, we are getting for our money what we voted for. And if it turns out that the total bill is less than what the bond initiative called for, the difference will be returned to the taxpayers.

Posted by Deep Throat, a resident of another community, 1 hour ago

How much is each public agency paying for each of the contracts and how much would be paid for any work beyond the "informal, preliminary work" covered by the current contracts? Follow the money.

Posted by landuse, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, 58 minutes ago

Supporters of more playing fields in Palo Alto had better keep a close watch on the design plans of the Cubberley site to ensure that those that are there now are not lost.

Posted by Doesnt pass the smell test, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, 52 minutes ago

Paul Losch seeks to cover the city's and contractor's mistakes:

"from City Staff is that despite the change orders, the Mitchell project will be done under the original budgeted amount"

Irrelevant. The Architects and the City made FOUR MILLION DOLLARS worth of mistakes.

Now the city is hiring them again. Collusion to cover up? Pretend it never happened by pointing to savings that should have been OURS.

Posted by Not-Happy-With-Group-4, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 43 minutes ago

> the difference will be returned to the taxpayers.

This statement is not exactly true. Not spending money that was authorized is not the same thing as "returning money" to the taxpayers.

And .. there is always the possibility that someone on the City Council will suggest that since $XXXX were authorized and not spent, then the City has a right to spend those dollars. We have seem that, from time-to-time, in the past.

> Irrelevant. The Architects and the City made

> FOUR MILLION DOLLARS worth of mistakes.

This comment is spot-on.

The problem here has to do with a failure to both plan and estimate the materials necessary for building this building safely. Hiring the same outfit again certainly does not pass the "smell test". Unfortunately, people like Paul Losch are more interested in spending other people's money, than operating a well-managed, honest, and cost-effective government.

It's clear that the City Manager is more interested in moving construction projects along, than dealing with the best design/construction outfits.

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Architects hired to brainstorm about Cubberley