Village School Seeks June Opening of New Building

Village School is preparing to end the school year in June with a bang. That’s when the final nails will be hammered into its new facility for arts and athletics on the corner of La Cruz and Alma Real. The project, which has been under construction for a year and a half, will supplement the existing campus on Swarthmore. While the school’s academic departments will remain at the main site, the business office will move to the new building, where physical education, music, dance and art programs will be headquartered. “We’re bursting at the seams,” said Head of School Nora Malone in an interview with the Palisadian-Post last Wednesday. “We wanted the facilities to match the current program.” She said the school, which currently has an enrollment of 288, has no plans to increase its student population beyond capacity (290) or add any grade levels (currently K-6). Village School parent and Palisades resident Ardie Tavangarian is the designer and builder of the new facility. “It’s an unusual project for me because I’m used to doing very elaborate museum homes,” said Tavangarian, who owns the West Los Angeles firm Arya. “I’ve never had a situation where most of my clients are not even born yet. That, to me, is rewarding, and very challenging.” In fact, three of his clients are his own daughters’Shana, who is graduating in June, and twins Emila and Nila, who are in second grade. His eldest daughter, Sade, attends Harvard-Westlake. Tavangarian and his wife, Tania, have lived in the Palisades since 1991. His design makes use of every inch of the 20,000-sq.-ft. lot, formerly the Yamato Nursery, between Seven Arrows Elementary and the 881 Alma Real building. Part of the challenge was constructing the two-story subterranean parking structure, which will have more than 70 spaces for exclusive use of the school. “We had to bridge over the entire site because the soil was unacceptable to be building on,” he said, explaining that they drilled caissons so as not to add pressure to a large storm-drain pipe that runs under the site. The entrance to the parking lot will be on Alma Real. The 15,000-sq.-ft. space above ground includes a two-story L-shaped building that houses a gymnasium which also serves as a theater, with a stage and retractable, cushioned seating. Other classrooms include a music/drama room with practice and recording space, a dance studio, art room, P.E. office, teachers’ lounge, warming kitchen and concession stand. Many of the rooms overlook the turf field to the west which is just under 6,000 sq. ft. “The building was designed from the inside out,” Tavangarian said, explaining that he was guided by the school’s program as well as his desire to make it a unique building for children. “My focus is to keep bringing a playfulness to it because the main clients are children,” he said. To achieve this playful quality, his team chose circles as the theme, incorporating “peek holes” into the design’along stairwells and in hanging mesh drapes. He selected color variations of red, orange and yellow, and easy-to-maintain, non degradable materials such as natural wood and copper. The railings on the exterior of the building are made of mahogany from Spain, and the surface tiles that line the outdoor walkways are Italian porcelain. The interior walls of the gym are a natural-colored, 12-inch thick concrete to keep sound in and unwanted noises out. Tavangarian plans to cover the exposed equipment storage closets with a patterned, impact-proof material to protect the children. There will be 20 colorful, low-energy light fixtures hanging over the basketball court, which is actually two half-courts. The court floor is white maple “like the Staples Center,” he said. Parents who want a better view of the games will be able to reserve seats in a skybox, another special feature which Tavangarian said will also help raise money for the school. “We’re trying to find ways to take advantage of space,” he said. Even the music/drama room, located directly above the stage and visible from the gym floor, has sliding glass doors so that the space can be used as a secondary stage. “This is going to be a very different experience for [the students],” Tavangarian said. An 18-ft.-wide Ferrari-red roll-up door connects the gym to the field, “to integrate the indoor and outdoor spaces,” Tavangarian said. While the school will hold most of its P.E. activities in the gym and on the small playing field, students will still have to go around the corner to the Palisades Recreation Center park for flag football and soccer, according to Malone. The roof of the structure is a no-maintenance copper, as are the gym’s exterior walls, which have already started to darken. There will also be exposed copper air ducts across the gym ceiling, which is perforated to absorb sound. In contrast to the copper/bronze tone of the gym building, the other half of the L-shape, where administration and multi-purpose rooms are located, is designed with a stainless steel material for a lighter, metallic finish. The entire structure is designed to feel and look more like a residence than an institution, said Tavangarian, who used natural wood trusses instead of the usual steel along the gym ceiling. Some of the natural materials were more costly’a 65-ft.-long microlam beam, for example, cost about $15,000 compared to $12,000 for steel’but he believes they add a warmth and softness to the space. “I’m hoping the building will add value to the community,” Tavangarian said. He has added features like a flower planter at the top of the copper wall on the La Cruz side of the building and a window that defines the corner of the building at Alma Real and La Cruz He plans to incorporate a fountain in which water drips down from the building to the ground below, as was originally suggested by the Palisades Design Review Board. “We’re working with the City [of Los Angeles] because it’s actually not our property,” he said about the corner land around the building. “We want to beautify it and make it part of our project, with minimum maintenance and very little water.” One of his main concerns is protecting the exposed, natural materials from taggers who, in the last few weeks, have spraypainted graffiti on other parts of the new building. Tavangarian welcomes suggestions from the community but said he does not plan to build a wall around the whole structure. The building entrance as well as a rolling gate that opens to the field will be on La Cruz, across from the Blue Cross Pet Hospital. While Tavangarian has had fun with the challenging project, he said this is his “first and probably last school.” He joked about the pressure he feels to complete the project in time for his daughter to graduate on the site in June. He said when he comes home from work every day, his children ask, “What did you do at the school today?”