The Lincoln Center’s Tumultuous Renovation
On Friday, January 27th, the newly dubbed “Lincoln Center” (previously known as the Media Center) received its newest addition: Furniture and a paint job for its doors. Since its re-opening on November 23rd, the Lincoln Center has slowly become a hub for students to get help for college applications, study in a quiet setting, and for classes focusing on digital media to congregate and learn. But the center’s renovation has been long and tumultuous, with delays and scrapped ideas plaguing it throughout.
When asked about the renovation and its subsequent delay, the Principal Hewitson mentioned how “the biggest delay had to do with the availability of contractors,” citing “a couple of massive projects… in the Silicon Valley [including] the Apple campus…, Netflix…, [and] Cisco.” Continuing, Principal Hewitson explained how “if we wanted [the contractors] right away, we would need to pay more, [which] we [couldn’t],” Principal Hewitson claimed that, as a result “If we waited a little longer, we could get the job done within our budget.”
In addition, district and state school codes had to be upheld, “here’s an extra approval process that has to go through the state of California,” said Hewitson “for school districts, the [building] codes are more restrictive and you have to go through this organization called the DSA, [which is] a state agency that you have to submit plans to, and there was just delays between the architect and the DSA.”
Not everything originally planned for the Lincoln Center was implemented in the final design. While the back classroom partition, which was requested by both students and teachers was implemented, a back entrance to that room was scrapped, as “[renovators] would’ve had to connect that door to be ADAE compliant,” according to Principal Hewitson, who claimed that such a development “just became a big budget issue.”
Other ideas that might make an appearance down the line include “a mix of carpeting and other hardflooring,” in the main portion of the center, as well as “a hanging projector,” both of which were cancelled due to budget constraints, according to Principal Hewitson. The flooring mix would potentially “allow [the faculty] to be more lax with rules like food, letting students have food and drinks in [The Lincoln Center].”
“We wanted to transition from a 1970s era book storage facility,” said Principal Hewitson, “To a facility that would be a hub of resources and activity and research and studying for our student body and for our faculty.”
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James Sobolov is a Senior at Lincoln high school. He currently serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the Lincoln Lion tales newspaper, and hopes to serve...
Marco Huerta is a senior at Abraham Lincoln High School. He currently serves as a graphic designer and writer for Lincoln Lion Tales. He was on the Lincoln...
