Evan George of the Downtown News reports on the latest from the Los Angeles High School for the Visual and Performing Arts being built at one end of Grand Ave.:

Finding the 230,000-square-foot facility will not be a problem for tourists or students thanks to the school’s tower - a 140-foot beacon that looms above the 101 Freeway just opposite the cathedral bell tower.

Wrapped in a steel helix that resembles an unwound number nine, the tower is meant to establish the school’s location from afar, but also to give a unifying sense of identity to students, Prix said. Whether eating lunch in the center plaza or trudging to third period in the sculpture department’s glass studio, the tower is visible from most points on campus.

It rises from a 40,000-square-foot theater complex that contains several performance spaces, including a 950-seat auditorium, an intimate black-box theater and an outdoor amphitheater carved into the backside of the building. The theaters are expected to host community events and outside artists as well as school performances.

“If you’ve been to the REDCAT theater, it will be like that,” said Gary Gidcumb, a project manager for HMC Architects.

More than 60 classrooms and loft-style workspaces with 14-foot ceilings are split between two main school buildings that line Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues. Stairways look out to the street through huge circular windows.

A third building will house administrative offices, and the courtyard will hold a generous public plaza that segues into a partially outdoor cafeteria with views of the Downtown skyline. The main entrance from Cesar Chavez is a long, wide staircase leading up to the middle of campus. From the bottom of the stairs, both the tower and the steel-perforated cone-shaped library appear.

My wife, Araceli, is chair of Discovering the Arts, the non-profit advisory board for the school.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 17th, 2007 at 11:18 am and is filed under Araceli Ruano, Blog, LA City Public Arts High School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.