Architect Sobesky Helps PaliHi Remodel an Office

Palisades Charter High School’s attendance office looks brand new with a fresh coat of paint, new office furniture and additional storage space.   The facelift can be attributed to the pro-bono work of award-winning architect Eva Sobesky and the school’s Booster Club, which donated $12,000 for the project.   ’We wanted to help improve the appearance of the school,’ Booster Club President Dick Held told the Palisadian-Post.   PaliHi’s Director of Student Services Monica Iannessa approached the Booster Club this spring asking for money to remodel the office, and Nancy Fracchiolla recruited fellow parent Sobesky, owner of EIS Studio in Venice, to renovate and organize the space this summer.   ’I thought, ‘Let’s use the talent of our parents,” Fracchiolla said. ‘Eva did a great job.’   Sobesky, a Pacific Palisades resident, has a history of volunteering her time to beautify local schools. She redesigned the quad at Paul Revere Charter Middle School in 2007 and helped refurbish the library at Palisades Charter Elementary School in 2008.   ’Public schools never have any funding, so we have to make it our responsibility to help,’ said Sobesky, whose daughter Hannah is a junior at PaliHi and son Liam is a fifth grader at Palisades Elementary. Her husband, Todd Mathers, works as vice president of programming at DirecTV.   Sobesky earned her undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Aachen, Germany and her master’s degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Before opening her own studio in 2002, she spent 12 years working at Frank O. Gehry & Associates and helped design the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.   In 2005, the American Institute of Architecture designated a home that she designed as one of the four best residential projects in the Palisades/Brentwood area. She designed the home, located on Pintoresca Drive above the Bel-Air Bay Club, to emphasize the setting, which has great ocean and mountain views.   ’My big passion is to design for indoor and outdoor spaces as suitable to our climate and California lifestyle,’ said Sobesky, who has five employees at her studio.   To begin the PaliHi project, Sobesky took photographs of the original space, which she described as cluttered and unorganized.   ’I wanted to improve the flow of the place,’ Sobesky said, so the file cabinets were recoated the same gray color and grouped together. She hired carpenter Jason Czekala, owner of Czekala Cabinets in Topanga, to build a storage unit, side desks and bookshelves. Working at a highly discounted rate, Czekala also made a kitchenette for the staff and benches and tables for the reception area.   To brighten the room, the walls were painted white and the accent walls a light green and bluish/gray. Students’ artwork will be displayed and rotated throughout the school year.   The paints were purchased from A. Allbright Painting in Valencia and the new desks, file cabinets and ergonomic chairs from Haworth’s showroom in Santa Monica. Both companies offered reduced prices.   Sobesky’s intern Scott Sternard, a USC architecture student, helped with design, drafting, shop drawings and product research. Fracchiolla served as the point person on the project, acting as the liaison between Sobesky and PaliHi’s administration while dealing with the vendors on all the new furniture. Parent Christine Kang coordinated and helped clear the office for the new furniture and painting.   ’The office remodel has definitely improved our work experience,’ Iannessa said. ‘Students and parents have seating and functional areas to fill out notes and forms. Behind the counter, we have more workspace for filing documents. Because our space has more storage, we are able to find materials more easily. The colors on the newly painted walls and counters are soothing, which has created a better and cleaner environment in which to work. We are so thankful to our Booster Club; everyone has noticed the difference.’   While the office is vastly improved, Sobesky has some finishing touches that she would like to make and is working to raise more funds. She hopes to add desk organizers, partitions, chair mats and more shelving.   In addition, Sobesky and Fracchiolla are starting to raise money to remodel the school’s main office, the counseling office and the main hallway. Their goal is to complete the remodel by next summer ‘ just in time to kick off the school’s 50th anniversary celebration. ‘The look should support how great the school is,’ said Fracchiolla, whose children, John and Alice, attend PaliHi. Her husband, Chris, owns Baskin-Robbins on Swarthmore Avenue. Fracchiolla is organizing a comedy night (date to be announced), where PaliHi students will perform classic Saturday Night Live skits to raise money for the remodeling effort.   To donate, send checks to Palisades Charter High School’s 50th Beautification, Attn: Michael Smith, 15777 Bowdoin St., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. Please indicate that the funds are for remodeling the offices and main hallway.