Face-lift comes at a price

Jeff Benson

The Robins-Loats bell tower dominates the skyline at Newport Harbor

High School. The 76-year-old arts and sciences building -- one of the

city’s tallest historical monuments -- used to be on navigation

charts, so seafarers could locate Newport Bay.

But more than a year after the building failed to meet seismic

inspection in June 2003, students must still navigate across

construction sites to portable classrooms nearly a quarter-mile away

while district officials try to shake up state funding. The costs of

repairing Robins Hall and adjoining Norman R. Loats Performing Arts

Center outweigh the costs of constructing a new facility, Assistant

Supt. of Finance Paul Reed said.

“Robins-Loats is somewhat of an anomaly,” Principal Michael Vossen

said. “Its renovation has always been on the radar, but its

replacement never has been. This was a whole different animal.”

The school’s administration, library, food-services department,

and its music, drama and science classes were relocated to portable

classrooms before Robins-Loats’ doors were locked for good, Vossen

said.

“We were taken out of the Measure A program because initial

analysis of seismic safety of the building concluded that the whole

building site represented an unacceptable risk in a code-magnitude

event, which means in an earthquake on a fault, you’ve got a

problem,” Reed said. “For that reason, we vacated the building and

created what we call the ‘Relo Village’ [of portable classrooms].”

A modernized, $27-million replacement has already been

blueprinted, but it doesn’t qualify for Measure A school bond funding

because it isn’t a remodeling job -- it’d be a whole new building.

Reed and several Newport-Mesa Unified School District colleagues

are attempting to solicit funding from the State Allocation Board in

Sacramento for Robins-Loats’ renovation, but he believes state

officials aren’t convinced the district needs the money.

“We think that if a structural engineer says the building wouldn’t

stand an earthquake on the Newport-Inglewood Fault, then that’s

pretty conclusive,” Reed said. “They want a more definitive answer

than that. We thought it would be unconscionable to have students and

staff in that building when we heard the report. What’s it really

going to take?”

Students are also trying to shake off the disruptions of an

ongoing $22-million Measure A construction project, scheduled for

completion in January 2006, that will eventually upgrade Newport

Harbor’s Beek Hall, Dodge Hall, Home Arts Building and Sims Hall.

Beek Hall is the first of the four to undergo reconstructive

surgery, as developers will install new lighting, flooring, windows,

electrical systems and plumbing systems and expand the school’s

existing computer networks in each of the buildings. Beek is closed

and is expected to reopen early in 2005.

Contractors over the summer replaced the school’s power substation

and plumbing infrastructure, Vossen said, and they laid electrical

conduit so students wouldn’t risk falling in 6-foot trenches during

the school year.

The school will also receive a new science lab, chemistry lab,

gymnasium and lunch shelter, he said.

Newport Harbor Associated Student Body President Juan Vazquez said

he doesn’t really mind all the construction or the fact that he no

longer has classes in Robins Hall. But he is getting tired of hiking

500 feet during his passing periods, from the portables to the main

buildings.

“It gets too crowded,” he said. “People are coming your way, and

you’re going their way. And it’s even worse when it rains. You have a

flooded zone separating the campus and the portables. They shouldn’t

be that far away from the main campus.”

Architect LPA designed the proposed building to mirror the 1930s

exterior of the existing building, including the replication of the

landmark bell tower. The differences will be in the thick,

earthquake-safe concrete foundation, in the redesigned interior and

in the building’s overall functionality.

The new Robins-Loats theater would lose its balcony level but gain

more overall square footage, additional seating, a larger stage and

better acoustics.

The library would have improved multimedia access and more shelf

space. The science labs would be able to accommodate more students,

and the food-services area would include an inner quad to serve

students during lunchtime.

“The design proposed was just that -- a proposal,” Vossen said.

“We’ll have to procure funding to meet that design. It could come

down to how much the district can afford.”

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].