{"id":237394,"date":"2015-01-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/a-transformation-of-services\/"},"modified":"2015-01-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T08:00:00","slug":"a-transformation-of-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/a-transformation-of-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Una transformaci\u00f3n de los servicios."},"content":{"rendered":"

Abandoned hospital repurposed to accommodate education<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Dave Fidlin<\/p>\n

For years, it sat empty and dormant in Grant Hill, situated atop a hill and overlooking the Downtown skyline.<\/p>\n

But after a vision, an extensive fundraising campaign, and a heaping dose of creativity, a former convalescent hospital was transformed last fall into a middle school campus for Albert Einstein Academy, a growing San Diego charter school.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the current school year, the wraps were taken off the 38,000-square-foot, four-story building, located at 458 26th St.<\/p>\n

An estimated 475 students began walking through the school\u2019s doors in September, but at full capacity, the middle school will accommodate 600 students in grades 6, 7 and 8.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_3796web\"<\/a>
The new middle school\u2019s west side (Courtesy Brad Baquial)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David Sciarretta, executive director of the academy, said the former hospital building has been ideal in helping to carry out Albert Einstein\u2019s international baccalaureate curriculum, which is aimed at linking personal, emotional and social skills with an emphasis on global learning.<\/p>\n

Some of the features of the new middle school facility include a so-called \u201cgenius bar\u201d that is dotted with computer stations and designed to foster collaboration among students. The facility also hosts a \u201cmaker\u2019s space\u201d that features cutting-edge technological tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were interested in having a facility that was open, airy and inspiring,\u201d Sciarretta said.<\/p>\n

Flexibility was also at the heart of the building\u2019s redesign.<\/p>\n

In keeping with the hands-on baccalaureate curriculum, Sciarretta said the middle school is flush with such features as \u201caccordion\u201d walls, allowing learning spaces to shrink or expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be able to shift \u2018on the fly\u2019 and use classroom space in a different way,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have multipurpose space that could serve as a place for students to eat one minute and be a place for yoga teaching at another time in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to relocating to the independent facility, Albert Einstein\u2019s middle schoolers were housed at the still-in-existence elementary school building at 3035 Ash St. in South Park.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_3523web\"<\/a>
Executive Director David Sciarretta addressing Albert Einstein Academy staff at the \u201cwelcome back\u201d event in September (Courtesy Brad Baquial)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBefore the move, the [middle school classrooms] were acting as silos,\u201d Sciarretta said. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken them out of the vacuum and created a more collaborative learning environment between the different grade levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sciarretta said the new learning space at Albert Einstein\u2019s new middle school facility was inspired by some of the designs in New York City. To date, he said the design is not commonplace within San Diego.<\/p>\n

The completion of this fall\u2019s middle school facility was the realization of a four-year effort by Albert Einstein\u2019s leaders. Sciarretta said the exploratory process kicked off in 2010. A number of properties were considered, but the former convalescent hospital won out for a variety of reasons \u2014 including its close proximity to the elementary building.<\/p>\n

As planning on the building gained momentum in 2012, Albert Einstein\u2019s board of directors agreed to bring Bankers Hill-based Studio E Architects into the fold, to plan the innovative features within the building.<\/p>\n

While the shell of the building has remained the same, the interior \u2014 which was described as being \u201cin a dilapidated state\u201d after sitting unused for at least a decade \u2014 was completely gutted from within.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe building had good bones; it was still very strong,\u201d said Maxine Ward, one of the Studio E architects who was involved in planning the renovation project.<\/p>\n

In addition to the repurposed use of the building, Ward said a number of energy-efficient improvements have been added to the revamp, including new insulation and windows. She said Studio E has submitted the project to the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design \u2014 or LEED \u2014 certification.<\/p>\n

The actual renovation of the building took place within a nine month period. Sciarretta and Ward cite the brevity of the project toward a number of factors, including a streamlined approach by City of San Diego officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to work with a number of city groups and go through what was referred to as an entitlement process because this was a site that was originally zoned as a hospital,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n

While Albert Einstein\u2019s leaders and school staff are celebrating this milestone, Sciarretta said he does not see the new campus as the last for the charter school, which opened in 2002 with solely elementary school classrooms. Middle school classes were added in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An upper floor lunch balcony overlooks the basketball courts with a view of Downtown
(Courtesy Brad Baquial)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No firm plans have been announced, but Sciarretta said he envisions Albert Einstein also having a teen-centric campus in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely see high school as being on the horizon,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the fall of 2017, or perhaps even earlier. We have a task force that is currently looking into this.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the largest sticking points for planning a high school is where it would actually be located, in what is a largely landlocked section of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really value the urban learning setting, and we would want [the high school] to have some sort of close proximity to the other two schools,\u201d Sciarretta said.<\/p>\n

For more information on San Diego\u2019s Albert Einstein Academies, visit aeacs.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Dave Fidlin has been a professional journalist for more than a dozen years. Throughout his career, he has contributed to a variety of newspapers, magazines and websites across the nation. He has a special affinity for San Diego and its people. Contact him at <\/i>dave.fidlin@thinkpost.net<\/a><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abandoned hospital repurposed to accommodate education By Dave Fidlin For years, it sat empty and dormant in Grant Hill, situated atop a hill and overlooking the Downtown skyline. But after a vision, an extensive fundraising campaign, and a heaping dose of creativity, a former convalescent hospital was transformed last fall into a middle school campus […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"A transformation of services","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}