Hamilton in 1932
Next semester, demolition will begin at 2955 South Robertson Boulevard, the first phase of a $189 million construction project set to be finished by 2028. It’s the first construction project of this size to grace Hamilton since its conception in 1931. Across the Humanities magnet, students and teachers are savoring their last moments with the campus before the buildings, and all the valuable memories inside them, are reduced to rubble.
As part of the project (commissioned in 2016), the district will remove the Humanities building and Lab building and replace them instead with a three-story structure for science and art classrooms, a two-story structure for the library, and unspecified classrooms, and a one-story performing arts building. A new track and football field, baseball field, and softball diamond will also be installed, with modern overhead lighting on all three facilities. In addition to the new buildings set to be constructed, the buildings that are preserved will receive new painting and flooring, futuristic seismic mitigation infrastructure, and perhaps most relieving to students, repairs to the high-pitched, ever-malfunctioning fire alarms.
A floor plan for the new modernized Hamilton campus can be viewed by clicking on this link.
As much as there is to celebrate about the renovation, there are also some flies in the ointment. First of all, when the Humanities and Lab buildings are demolished, the classes that previously met there will be moved to bungalow units on the baseball field, which won’t have lockers, air-conditioning, or convenient bathrooms. Also of relative concern to students is the fact that the project will get rid of the senior parking lot, reducing the number of available student parking spaces at a school where parking is already a grave issue. Furthermore, environmentalists on campus will be irked to know that a big portion of the 168 beloved trees that provide shade to Hamilton’s quad will need to be chopped down in order to make room for the new buildings.
Opinions are mixed in the Humanities magnet about the remodeling project.
Dr. Llamas, for one, can’t wait. The ceiling speakers set to be installed in the new science rooms will make his lectures easier, and the new lab equipment he will have access to, like improved plumbing in the lab sinks, will create more opportunities for hands-on learning in his biology classes. As long as the historic buildings like the auditorium are preserved, “I have no complaints,” he said. He recognizes, however, that the reconstruction process might be more difficult for teachers that teach humanities-oriented classes, and care less about having modern facilities, to digest.
Ms. Malina is likewise enthusiastic about the remodel. While she’s of course sad to see the Humanities building go, as it holds a lot of personal memories for her as both a teacher and alumnus of the magnet, she’s also “hopeful about seeing this demolition as a process of tearing something down in order to build it back up stronger.” She believes the literal reconstruction of our Hamilton campus can come to represent a more figurative growth on the horizon.
As much sentimental value as the Humanities building holds for Ms. Press, she also agrees that the remodel is a positive idea. “Sometimes it’s good to be forward-looking,” she said.
Señora Salazar, despite working in the Humanities magnet for decades, won’t shed a tear when the building is demolished, describing it as a “dilapidated” earthquake hazard that’s long overdue for a remodel. She’s excited about the modern electrical circuits that will power her new classroom, making it possible for her to implement new kinds of technology in her lessons, and for the new green outside space where students will be able to eat at lunch and nutrition. She’s also proud that the softball team, for so long relegated to the football field for practices and games, will get its own sovereign field. “It’s about time that we recognize women’s sports at this school,” she remarked. Yet the best thing about the remodel, in Señora Salazar’s opinion, is that the district will be picking up the tab for it, and Hamilton’s individual students won’t be burdened by the hefty cost.
Mr. Abraham is impatient for the ground-breaking, too. “We've been discussing the remodel for years, at this point, so while I both think it's a great idea to update our facilities and I understand the exigencies of the pandemic, I'd like to see the process begin sooner rather than later,” he said.
To others, though, the demolition of our cherished Humanities magnet building is an insult to all the hard work that went into making the magnet such a viable environment for learning over the decades. “There’s history here,” Dr. Loera said, sighing. She believes the district should use its money to repair the broken infrastructure in Hamilton’s buildings as they are now, rather than getting rid of them altogether.
Mrs. Pollock, meanwhile, doesn’t have an issue with the construction project, but it’s the period in between demolition and the opening of the new Humanities building that she’s worried about. “Selfishly, I’m bummed because this project will begin before my son gets to Hamilton and won’t be finished until he’s graduated,” she said, expressing a sentiment that’s common among incoming Hamilton parents. Mrs. Pollock’s son hopes to be on Hamilton’s baseball team, which likely won’t have a home field for most of the remodel. She knows that her son’s high school experience, and that of his peers, won’t be the classic Hamilton experience she got here as a student or the one that she’s observed countless Humanities students have throughout her teaching career.
Ms. Colker, like Mrs. Pollock, loves the idea of remodeling Hamilton but awaits the project with bated breath. While she agrees with the district that our current campus is “woefully inadequate” for contemporary education, she predicts, like Mrs. Pollock, that the transition period between the old buildings and new buildings will be hectic and not conducive to learning. She stressed the need for both “decent facilities and a decent plan for the transition into them.”
Mr. James hesitates to proclaim himself either for or against the remodel. On the one hand, he’s excited to move into a new classroom, but on the other hand, he questions the high cost and slow timeline of the project. Like Dr. Loera, he knows from students that there are urgent issues with Hamilton’s infrastructure, like unsanitary bathroom conditions and an old cafeteria, that the district could be fixing right now instead of having to demolish the entire campus first. Of the remodel, he said, “it’s a double-edged sword.”
Mr. Estrada, like Mr. James, wants to wait until the remodel is in motion to decide whether or not he thinks it’s worth $189 million. The only thing he’s confident about is that it will be impossible to replace the vibe of the original Humanities building. To take away a school’s classrooms, he thinks, is “to take away its personality.”
When the Humanities building will collapse, and where classes will be relocated when it does, are both questions that the district has not provided concrete answers to. On October 15, 2020, the district hosted a webinar to introduce the renovation to parents and collect feedback, but since that evening, communication between the district and parents has been meager if not non-existent. Hamilton’s administrators will send messages home as more details continue to be ironed out. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure: the Humanities magnet will survive. In the end, our small learning community is not a place but a group of people, and like all resilient groups of people have been doing from time immemorial, we will move and mutate in response to changes in our environment.
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