Project Accommodates Students, Concerns Residential Neighbors
The Pasadena City Council recently approved a monumental project for La Salle High School that will revamp the school’s facilities.
The La Salle Master Plan, which is the first in school history, consists of three-phases, spread over 15 years, and is meant to “address various athletic and programmatic needs.”
Dr. Richard Gray, president of La Salle, pled his case before the council, arguing that the school needed “excellent facilities, to support excellent programs.”
Gray described his institution, which is indeed the largest private Catholic high school in the city, as the “most ethnically, economically, and demographically diverse school in Pasadena,” serving “more middle income students that any other high school in Pasadena” and providing “more and greater financial aid than any other school in Pasadena”
With give or take 22 sports teams, more than some small colleges, La Salle’s current facilities are not capable of accommodating practice for all of its teams on campus. In addition to the baseball and softball programs being forced outsource activities to fields in Arcadia, La Salle’s lack of facilities presents its teams with significant scheduling conflicts, resulting in some teams having to practice at unorthodox times. “I need my freshmen to be doing homework at 9 p.m., not practicing because teams have to share one facility,” said Dr. Gray.
The school’s performing arts facilities are also underwhelming, relative to the size of its student body. Dr. Gray described the current circumstances as “inadequate, uncomfortable, and cramped.”
Therefore, in order to more properly accommodate its students’ needs, the La Salle Master Plan will construct five new buildings: a new practice gymnasium, aquatic center (includes outdoor swimming pool with a sound wall to minimize noise), performance arts/sound stage building, classroom building, and a field house.
Construction will require the demolition of two existing buildings, removal of the baseball field, and renovation of the existing classroom/administrative building. Additionally, the Master Plan calls for “reconfiguration and extension of [the] existing surface parking lot (north parking lot) and extension of the southern surface parking lot,” according to city staff’s report.
There will be no increase in student enrollment, but five new faculty members will be added, increasing the staff’s size from 90, to 95.
The project will result in a net increase of 83,874 square feet and, upon completion of all three phases, “the proposed gross floor area of the campus would be 179,375 square feet.”
Phase 1 is projected to occur within five years and phases 2 and 3 will occur 10 to 15 years down the line.
Major Phase 1 components include:
– Interior renovations to existing administration/classroom building, with no modifications to the exterior.
– Demolition of 3,875-square-foot, two-story locker/classroom building and construction of 1,800 square feet of classroom space.
– Construction of an 11,600-square-foot practice gymnasium.
– Construction of an open-air swimming pool and sound wall.
– Construction of an 8,750-square-foot aquatic center located immediately south of the new practice gymnasium and west of the new pool. Aquatic center will include the following: weight room, locker rooms, team gathering areas, and equipment storage areas.
– Construction of parking lot at the southern-center portion of site, west of aquatic building and east of existing track and field area, replacing the existing surface parking lot on which the new pool and aquatic building would be constructed. The new lot would result in a net increase of nine parking spaces on campus.
Phase 2 will comprise of the following:
– Demolition of existing 1,301-square-foot storage building.
– Construction of 43-foot-5-inche-tall performance arts and indoor stage building (56,250 square feet), which will include 500 seats for spectators, an auditorium, sound recording facility, and classroom space.
The final third of the Master Plan, Phase 3, includes the construction of a field house, built into hillside beneath the existing bleachers north of track and field area.
Although dozens of students and school staff/affiliates flooded the council chambers in support of the endeavor, there were opposing voices present.
Residents of the Lower Hastings Ranch showed concern for potential impacts resulting from 15 years of construction and possible third-party usage of the facilities in the future. Most concerns regarded traffic, noise, and aesthetic issues, particularly losing current home views of the San Gabriel Mountains as a result of the new structures.
The Master Plan was reviewed and subsequently approved by both the planning commission (July 13) and design commission (Nov. 10, 2015), with certain conditions for approval meant to address residents’ concerns.
Conditions included the addition of a sound wall to the outdoor pool, restrictions on long-term third-party outdoor uses, limitations on weekday event start times, a 30-day traffic study (ultimately approved by the department of transportation), and more.
Residents submitted their own recommendations, including making the aquatic center indoors/soundproof and lowering the overall building height, to name a few, but, in the end, council decided to move forward with staff’s recommendation (with a few minor changes).
Upon council’s approval of the Master Plan, Mayor Terry Tornek struck his gavel and jokingly addressed the crowd of La Salle students and cheerleaders in full uniform: “You are dismissed.”
