And they're off: six teams compete to design M-A's arts center And they're off: six teams compete to design M-A's arts center (March 30, 2005)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

The juried design competition has begun for a new performing arts center at Menlo-Atherton High School on Middlefield Road in Atherton. And none too soon, some might say.

To the strains of class-period bells, unanswered ringing phones, cafeteria noises, and the sounds of ripping tape from scenery fabrication going on backstage, representatives from six architectural teams gathered in M-A's cavernous uncarpeted multi-purpose room recently to get a sense of what school officials had in mind for the new arts center.

The winning team will have $17 million and about 24,000 square feet to work with for an arts center and a new cafeteria. (Woodside High's new stand-alone arts center is 25,000 square feet.)

Primary funding will be from Measure H bond funds, approved by voters in November 2004.

More money could be forthcoming from the city of Menlo Park, which lost its community theater in 2001 when structural damage forced the closure and later demolition of the Burgess Theater. If negotiations work out, the city may contribute another $2 million to $3 million.

The six teams have until late May to come up with designs. At a June 4 presentation, an eight-person jury -- four local architects, a theater manager, and three school or district representatives -- will pick a winner.
Signature building?

On school days, a driver on Middlefield Road passing M-A from Ringwood Avenue to Oak Grove Avenue will see parked cars, an old chain-link fence, and open, brown unplanted ground between the road and the school.

"The front really looks terrible," said Don Gielow, who oversees construction projects for the Sequoia Union High School District.

Matt Zito, M-A's administrative vice principal, told the architects that M-A was one of "four very ugly schools" built very quickly in the area in the 1950s.

Mr. Zito wasn't enthusiastic, either, about recent structural additions to the campus. Referring to M-A's new library, opened in 2002, and new gym, opened in 2004, he said: "While very nice buildings, they are not interesting buildings, in my humble opinion."

Of the new arts center, he said: "This building has to be useful, but it also has to look good when you're driving by at 35 mph in your Mercedes."

"Consider this as a clear canvas," M-A Principal Norman Estrada told the architects. "We want the building to be a signature building."
Priorities

The architects heard a list of must-haves for the arts center, including "great" acoustics; an interior to weather years of teen-age wear and tear; storage for 200 musical instruments and 3,000 to 4,000 pieces of sheet music, some of which are rare; video and audio recording facilities; and drama facilities welcoming to a one-act play by Eugene Ionesco or "Bye-Bye Birdie."

The multi-purpose room now known as J Building can stay or go, but its function must be included, school officials said. M-A must have a venue for a canned food drive that brings in 80,000 cans or an award ceremony that combines speeches and a chili chow-down. "We don't want them anywhere near our (arts center)," said Mr. Zito.
Constraints

The designers will have immovable objects to contend with, including heritage oak trees and the aesthetic of 50-year-old school buildings. And there is the issue of access to the campus by vehicles.

Ravenswood Avenue dead-ends at Middlefield Road right across the street from the likely location of the new arts center. Because Ravenswood does not continue into the M-A campus, school traffic jams the area along Middlefield Road and Ringwood Avenue twice a day.

The arts-center project could address congestion by extending Ravenswood into the campus, but cities and towns control where curbs can be cut for roadways. Since the school hasn't yet talked with Atherton and given normal sensitivity to traffic issues, Mr. Gielow warned the architects not to count on an extension, but to design as if there were one.

In coming weeks, he said he will likely ask project manager Kent Brown and Ed LaVigne, the Sequoia district's financial officer, to talk with Atherton officials.

Given limited space to create turn lanes on Middlefield, the school could restrict use of an extension to Ravenswood traffic coming straight across Middlefield, said Mr. Gielow in an interview.

"We are obviously interested in trying to do something there. I think it would help Atherton," Mr. Gielow said. "But they're in charge of this. They can do what they want."

School and district officials have shown a neighborly attitude. Last fall, in response to the concerns of Atherton residents, the school district canceled plans to light the football field.

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