FARRINGTON HIGH TO GET 21ST-CENTURY REDESIGN
A planned floor-to-ceiling renovation of Farrington High School, expected to cost upwards of $40 million, could pave the way for addressing inadequate facilities at dozens of aging schools statewide and prepare them to meet the needs of 21st century education. The state is finalizing a contract with a San Francisco-based firm to kick off a pilot project at Farrington that will determine not only what large repairs need to be made at the school, but how today's expectations for education can be incorporated into a campus built five years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Read more…
RAINWATER IS WELCOME ON ROOF OF NEW THEATER AT WOODSIDE PRIORY
Would-be critics attending the new theater at the Woodside Priory, a private coed grade 6-12 school in Portola Valley, may someday talk of performances that raise the roof, but such a metaphor could elicit a raised eyebrow or two among the cognoscenti. Indeed, a bird perched on the theater's roof during an opera may hear nothing song-like except the chirping of other birds. The covering on the 9,000-square-foot roof includes six inches of plastic foam insulation, three inches of soil, and a top layer of green sedum, a common ground cover for sod roofs.
The structure, says Bob Klotovich of San Francisco-based Plant Construction, weighs 250,000 pounds. It's an environmental feature in that the soil filters and retains rainwater rather than adding it to the runoff that drains from most roofs. The theater is the largest of three buildings in the Priory's new 16,000-square-foot, 400-seat, $14 million performing arts complex designed by the architectural firm MKThink of San Francisco. The facilities were more or less ready to use on the first day of school last September, says school spokesman Sean Mclain Brown. Read more…
WELCOME BACK FOUNDING MEMBER – MARIJKE A. SMIT
Marijke Smit rejoins MKThink as Director of Strategic Planning. She will serve as a leader in MKThink’s consulting group providing expertise in planning for K-12, university, cultural and municipal institutions. Marijke brings 10 years of professional experience, technical knowledge and leadership skills to MKThink, further enriching the firm’s highly regarded consulting service offerings.
PRIORY ARCHITECTS CHOSE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY OPTIONS
Think and client Woodside Priory School recently celebrated the groundbreaking of Priory's new Performing Arts Center. The Priory is committed to careful stewardship of its environment. It also is in need of more building space, more parking, and more funding for facilities. These two realities may seem to be in conflict, but they are not. With good planning, the educational and natural environments will actually improve, according to MKThink, priory Architects.
MEET THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM - MARK O’DELL
Mark O’Dell, AIA joins MKThink as Director of Architectural Services. Mark will oversee MKThink’s architecture and interior projects as well as provide operational leadership for the growing practice. He brings 22 years of professional experience, technical knowledge and leadership skills to MKThink expanding the firm’s professional services. Mark has extensive knowledge of construction documentation, construction administration, and project management with expertise in areas such as issues of constructability, quality control and assurance, building coordination, and technical oversight. Mark garnered his expertise working on numerous high-profile assignments for clients such as General Motors Corporation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the University of California, and Sun Microsystems. He previously held positions at HOK in Los Angeles as Vice President Director of Project Delivery, and at Kaplan/McLaughlin/Diaz (KMD) Architects in San Francisco as Director of Construction Documents.
TOOTHPASTE AND A MOVIE, ALL IN ONE
The forward-thinking architects at San Francisco’s MKThink do a lot more than design buildings – they solve problems, too. When the Marina Theater on Chestnut Street closed in 2001, the beloved but decrepit 1920s edifice seemed doomed. Neighborhood groups wanted to preserve a theater, but it looked as if the space might follow in the footsteps of – heaven forbid – the Alhambra on Polk, now a Crunch gym where young professionals work on their “tight pecs”. That’s when MKThink came up with the idea for a multiuse building that lets Marina residents have their cake and eat it, too. The ground floor of the structure is now a Walgreens, the second floor houses two screens showing the latest indie flicks, and the building’s original 1927 Mission – Classicism façade will remain intact. Neighborhood purists are bound to gripe about the Walgreens compromise, but hey, everyone could use another place to buy deodorant, right? The new, and we hope improved, Marina Theater upstairs is set to reopen any day.
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