gratts new primary center breaks ground
This blog has moved to Twitter! Check out my twitter feed for the latest restaurant, retail, and cultural news in the neighborhood.
On May 8, a quiet ground breaking ceremony was held for the Gratts New Primary Center, a new K-2 school facility being developed at 5th and Lucas by advocacy group New Schools Better Neighborhoods on the edge of City West.
The construction marks the first phase of the four-acre Gratts/Westlake project, a mixed-use joint redevelopment effort replacing a block of older residential structures just north of the Good Samaritan Hospital to meet the schooling and affordable housing needs of the Westlake community. After many years of delays, the project is finally making headway.
Designed by Rios Associates Architects, the master planned parcel (bordered by 4th and 5th streets and Hartford and Lucas avenues) will eventually include a 5-story apartment complex containing 75 low-income units (developed by A Community of Friends), an early eduction center (in the works by LAUSD), a boys and girls club, and accessible open space. Approvals are still being sought for the remaining components.
2 comments
I have no doubt this project is well intended, and should turn out to be an asset to the community. But I wonder about a plan that requires demolition of several older structures that could have been renovated and incorporated into the new project. Some of these structures were, if not historically significant, gentle reminders of another era. Where is the imagination of developers and architects when stripping the site of all existing structures and mature landscaping is considered inevitable?
Real urban texture depends on saving something to provide context, character, scale, humanness. I’m sorry to see this type of approach to urban development in the 21st century.
Because this is a school, it has to comply with the Field Act. The Field Act basically says that schools have to be built to a higher standard because kids will be occupying the space (and I think we can all agree that is a good goal). Anyway, retrofitting existing buildings to meet the Field Act standards is impossible for a lot of buildings and for those that can be retrofitted, it is extremely expensive and time consuming. My bet for this site is that the buildings could not be retrofitted (at least for the school, the new apartment building is a diffferent situation).