The facelift coming to Palisades High School known as the Gateway Project should be completed before the start of the 2014-15 academic year, officials learned at the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, July 15.
The project’s aim is to address pedestrian safety concerns and the entryway at Pali High’s front intersection. The design proposes a physical link between the new gate and the old gate in the middle of the block while providing a more generous walkway for the students entering and leaving at peak hours.
Rich Schmitt/Staff Phtoographer
Principal Pam Magee said the cost of the first phase of work is approximately $30,000. The Pali High Booster Club is covering $17,000 of the costs, and the remainder is coming from the donation supplied by the late Rose Gilbert. Gilbert’s donation also contributed to the renovations of Gilbert and Mercer Halls in 2012.
“It’s a very big endeavor and we have fundraising for it,” Magee told the Palisadian-Post. “The front of the school is very narrow and it’s a safety hazard. With morning drop offs, bus drop offs, buses turning and cars turning, it’s an extremely narrow walkway.”
Local architect Doug Suisman of Santa Monica-based Suisman Urban Design, which is handling the design work, presented several renderings of the new entryway at the trustee’s meeting.
Featured elements of the project include a senior garden, which will be the largest of several proposed green spaces following a promenade from end to end.
The current space near the flagpole where the garden will go is an overgrown and underutilized blacktop space covered with chain link.
Native landscaping and fruit trees will be added as well. Student artwork in the form of a mosaic tile wall will also be installed to tie in an artistic component.
Magee said the trustees have been brainstorming the Gateway Project since they began discussing how to improve the campus facilities a few years ago.
The project picked up pace last spring when the booster club wanted to do something to memorialize Rose Gilbert. The club donated a bronze dolphin statue to be incorporated into Suisman’s Gateway design.
Magee said they hope to have most of the Gateway Project work finished before the Board of Trustees’ Aug. 19 meeting.
Other infrastructure work beyond the Gateway project is expected to be coming to Pali High, including renovations to the Stadium by the Sea.
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