For more than a decade, Pacific Primary has explored ways to expand the size of the school and meet its long-stated goals of accessibility, affordability and diversity. In recent years, as enrollment demand has increased rapidly, the pressure to expand has become even greater. But it has always been difficult to find an adequate site that would meet our needs – until now.
In January 2006, through the extraordinary generosity of a handful of alumni families and with the support of First Republic Bank, Pacific Primary acquired the Hicks Temple, located directly across the street from the school.
On this Second Site, Pacific Primary will realize a dream and build the future of the School – for our children and our grandchildren. The Second Site will accommodate up to 80 children, doubling the enrollment in the school and allowing us to meet our mission of serving the greatest number of San Francisco’s working families.
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE (as of June 22, 2008)
The scaffolding and protective mesh came down last week, and a new building seems to have suddenly emerged from behind the curtains.
A lot has changed in the past month. The walls and ceilings are almost completely finished on the interior and all the paster is complete on the exterior. The exterior will be painted toward the end of the project and wood (Prodema) panels will be added to certain sections on the exterior and in the courtyard. The built-in cabinetry is being installed throughout the school. Workers have begun moving dirt and levelling the ground in preparation for the courtyard construction.
For more details, see the new update for June 2008 in the PDF below.
Click here or on the photo below to see the daily pix.
ORANGE SUN SCHOOL UPDATE , JUNE 2008
Click here or on the picture above for the latest update, from April 15.
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
Thanks to generous donations from a variety of sources, we have successfully raised $2,500,000. This has been primarily because of the heroic efforts by David Lahar, the Steering Committee Chair, with help from Belann Giarretto, Director, and Fif Ghobadian, Board President. Our capital campaign goal is to reach $3,500,000 to cover our expenses for the building, construction, and our green initiatives.
We're almost there! Please consider making a generous donation to the capital campaign today! Click here for a donation form.
FLOORPLANS
For current floorplan designs of the new building, click on the following links to download PDF file images:
Floorplan: Level 1 (pdf)
Floorplan: Level 2 (pdf)
GREEN DESIGN ELEMENTS
One of the exciting aspects of the new building is that our architects, TOM ELIOT FISCH, have desinged the site to be as "green" and environmentally sensitive as possible. Some of the new site's green components include:
1. Living Roof
2. Photovoltaic roof panels
3. Hydronic radiant floor heating system
4. Natural ventilation: operable windows in every room
5. Eco-space elevator (i.e., traction style, low-energy use)
6. Sustainably-derived finish materials: exterior wood panels, linoleum flooring, carpet tiles, acoustic panels
(Click on picture for larger image.)
SECOND SITE VIDEO
Watch our new video (produced by Jim Pohl) about Pacific Primary's origins and the plans for the new site. (Technical note: you will need to click on the "play" button twice to start the video. If the video does not play, check to see whether your browser is blocking it. Internet Explorer users will usually need to allow "ActiveX" content. Typically, the browser will display a yellow bar up near the browser menus asking you to click there to allow ActiveX content to play.)
