M-A performance center design decision due Saturday M-A performance center design decision due Saturday (June 01, 2005)

A new performing arts center is coming to the campus of Menlo-Atherton High School. What it will look like is something for the jury to decide.

The jury in this case is group of eight people -- four Bay Area architects, two M-A parents, a Menlo Park City Council member, and an administrative vice principal at M-A -- who will meet Saturday, June 4, to hear from the six architectural teams competing to build a $17 million 500-seat theater at the intersection of Middlefield Road and Ravenswood Avenue.

Project funding is from a $70 million construction bond approved by voters in November. The city of Menlo Park is negotiating with the school and may contribute $2 million to $3 million toward the project in exchange for occasional use.

The public may view the competing models for the new arts center between 4 and 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 31, in the anteroom of the new gym on the M-A campus at 555 Middlefield Road in Atherton. The models will also be on display at a public reception that begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the same location.

The models are accompanied by narratives mounted nearby. Forms are available for the public to comment.

In a public meeting that begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday in the gym, each firm will make a presentation, followed by jury questions. Seating for at least 50 is planned and bleachers will be pulled out if necessary, said program manager Kent Brown.

With 15-minute breaks between presentations, a break for lunch at about 12:30 p.m. and a five-minute wrap-up from each firm, the jury should retire for private deliberations at about 6 p.m. and is expected to make its decision that same night, said Mr. Brown.

On the jury are architects Peter Dodge, John S. Fisher and C. David Robinson of San Francisco; architect Donn Logan of Berkeley; M-A parents Sue Fitch and Ken Beckman; M-A Administrative Vice Principal Matthew Zito; and Menlo Park City Council member Lee Duboc. Advising the jury will be Gregg Brooks, a theater manager with the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District, said competition adviser and architect Bill Liskamm.

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