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Compton
Center Rolls Out Facilities Master Plan
Goals for bringing
antiquated campus into the 21st century seen as a long overdue
renaissance and necessary to regaining accreditation
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – As
Compton Center trudges through the first stages of regaining accreditation,
the school recently introduced to the public a preliminary version
of a facilities master plan that aims to fully transform the campus
aesthetic.
The plan, presented at last month’s Compton Community College
District Board of Trustees meeting, has yet to be finalized but should
be within the next several weeks, said Fred Sturner, director of Facilities,
Management and Planning at Compton Center.
At the top of the list among its main objectives is a focus on students,
said Deborah Shepley, an architect with tBP Architecture, one of the
firms hired by the school to assist in formulating the plan.
“It’s the students that need to be here, it’s the
students we need more of on campus,” she said.
Goals include better utilizing the quad and streamlining pedestrian
pathways; centralizing student and administrative services areas; boosting
curb appeal; establishing a health center; improving the cafeteria,
bookstore and staff lounge areas; and creating outdoor meeting/gathering
areas that will further a relaxed environment.
Divided into four phases, Shepley said the plan would take between
7 – 10 years to complete and will require the demolition and
rebuilding of many of the former college’s main buildings, some
of which are upwards of 50 years old.
Currently those buildings are grandfathered in to meet today’s
seismic and other safety requirements. The catch, said Sturner, is
that if any renovation work is done to those buildings, then they will
be required by law to meet today’s building code standards.
“Economically speaking, that makes it almost cheaper to tear
them down and rebuild,” he said. “We look at that as an
opportunity – if
something is not so feasible to restore, maybe we can put something
new there.”
Compton Center’s campus was originally situated primarily to
the north near what used to be its main entrance and exit off Greenleaf
Boulevard. It gradually spread south over the years following the construction
of the Gardena (91) Freeway, after which time the entrance off Artesia
Boulevard became the main ingress and egress.
However, because portions of the campus were built during different
decades, facilities on the campus as a whole are mismatched, lack unity
and are not clustered together by classification.
“It’s very difficult to get a sense of place, a sense of
where you are and where you are going,” said Sturner of the current
layout.
Row buildings, which are home to most of the school’s classrooms,
were built in the 1950s. Next came the gymnasium in the 1960s, and
additional physical education buildings and the Allied Health Center
in the 1980s. The Mathematics and Science building was constructed
in the 1990s, and the 21st century brought with it the Child Development
Center (CDC) and the still empty and unused Learning Resource Center
(LRC), which was built improperly and remains unsafe for habitation.
The entrances, said Shepley, are poorly marked. This does not bode
well for a school that is in dire need of boosting visibility and increasing
enrollment numbers as part of the process of regaining accreditation.
“These entrances mark the campus, but they are not as monumental
and as strong a gateway presentation as they could be,” she said. “In
fact, when we first came to the campus, we drove right by it and had
to turn around and come back.
“In order to increase the identity, it’s really important
that those edges really announce what’s happening on the inside
of the campus.”
Once parked, the campus is not very welcoming, especially in the south
lot.
“It feels like you’re coming in the back door,” she
said.
Broken down by phase, Shepley estimated phase one would take roughly
three to four years to complete, while each phase after that should
take one to two.
“
But it depends a lot on funding and other issues,” she added.
Officials labeled the master plan’s creation and development
as a highly participatory process in which students, staff and the
community were involved.
“This is something that I think the whole campus is proud of
because of the crazy hours, the time and the energy that individuals
put into
this and the exception with which all of the suggestions were taken
into consideration,” said Interim Provost Dr. Doris Givens. “It
was done in a way that we can be proud of.”
Givens labeled the plan’s unveiling as a “celebration.”
The architect and consultant worked with a committee comprised of representatives
from various campus subcommittees “in order to have representation
for all.” Project goals were developed from feedback gathered
from the committee and area residents via a community meeting held
in December.
After gathering input, the architect came up with three potential plans.
From those three, a fourth plan combining elements of each was created,
which was eventually chosen as the preferred option.
The district paid tBP and another consultancy firm roughly $300,000
to complete a full assessment as well as develop and finalize the plan.
Sturner said doing so was necessary because the school must submit
a facilities master plan when applying for grants from the state to
fund the plan’s many components.
What Comes Next
The first phase will consist of what Shepley described as the school’s
top priorities.
These include the opening of the LRC and the centralization of library
and LRC services; renovation of the Little Theatre; construction of
a 14,000-square-foot instructional building to replace the easternmost
section of row buildings to be demolished during phase one; construction
of a centralized student services center; renovation of the administration
building; and new overhead and pedestrian lighting on the southern
portion of the campus.
Altogether in today’s dollars, Sturner said phase one’s
price tag is a hefty $83 million. Of that, the state is currently expected
to contribute $54 million.
“Though we are actively working on increasing the state contribution
and decreasing our contribution,” the facilities director said.
Reopening the Allied Health Center (AHC) is surprisingly not part of
phase one; one would think it would be identified as a “top priority.” However,
both Shepley and Sturner said that because the school is in line to
receive state funding for that particular project, it has been slated
for phase two to allow time for the money to come in.
The AHC, home to Compton Center’s flagship nursing program, has
been closed since December 2006 after a serious flood that revealed
an underlying mold problem. Because of the pre-existing mold condition,
the school was only able to secure $550,000 from the insurance company – far
less than what it would take for its repair and reinstatement.
Since the flood, the nursing program has been administered in a portion
of the D-row building, which was renovated to meet the vocational program’s
needs.
Work and expansion of the AHC will be a roughly $6.5 million undertaking
in today’s dollars, and the state is expected to contribute $4.5
million to the cause, Sturner said.
If things go as he anticipates, work on the AHC will “straddle” phase
one and phase two, he added.
Relative to the LRC, a multi-story building constructed several years
ago and made nearly entirely of glass, that building should soon be
habitable.
Sturner said the school is nearing an agreement with the contractor
that botched the job when constructing the LRC, which resulted in the
building’s not obtaining approval by the Department of the State
Architect (DSA). Once that work is corrected and the DSA gives its
OK, its doors will finally be open. He estimated this will take between
six to 18 months.
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