A building cluster at Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park area - good location to raze and then build a high school? (Los Angeles: apartment, rental)

[LALady]

Originally Posted by Vicman

I'm personally more comfortable with razing apartments and condos as the residents aren't as attached to them - Dallas ISD did that to build Conrad High School to serve the Vickery Meadow community

Speak for yourself. I'm attached to my condo and my condo community.

[Vicman]

1. That's a good find. However I was looking for something within the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council area, though.

The boundaries are here: http://www.shermanoaksnc.org/images/soncmap.gif (broken link)

If there is something like that is not being used within this general boundary (red tagged from the quake, etc), it would be great.

The Van Nuys @ Vanowen would be a wonderful site for a reliever middle school in the area.

2. I'll just copy and paste from a PM: Houston is very similar to Los Angeles in terms of its layout and its development. I'm interested in urban planning and district boundaries of things.

Originally Posted by UB50

You know, there is an old bank building that is just north of Vanowen on Van Nuys Blvd. that is available. It's still red tagged from the Northridge earthquake back in 1994. Why don't you try to figure out what is going on with that particular piece of property before you decide it's appropriate to raise properties that people are living in? It's a big huge office tower that no one has ever taken care of. Perhaps you could turn it into a school? It has(had) a big huge multilevel parking garage behind it too.

If you live in Texas, why does LA matter to you so much? What are your motives?

I've never seen anything that made me feel that Sherman Oaks was underserved in the education department. Most people there sent their kids to private school.

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by squeezeboxgal

I spent a year teaching in one of the small schools in that complex. It's much more representative of NYC's current "small schools" philosophy. It has no outdoor athletic facilities, just two small gyms inside, a weight room on an upper floor, and a "playground" (so to speak) on the roof.

And in CA, that is unacceptable. Football is THE sport. Soccer is growing(and especially popular in hispanic dominated areas). Baseball and womens softball are still popular. And Lacrosse is a booming sport in the region.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

And in CA, that is unacceptable. Football is THE sport. Soccer is growing(and especially popular in hispanic dominated areas). Baseball and womens softball are still popular. And Lacrosse is a booming sport in the region.

In other words, to adapt the NYC design to Socal we would have to add additional space for "outdoor" sports (Football, etc) in an area on the ground, right? I wonder how much additional space that would add.

BTW Bellaire High in Bellaire, TX, of Houston ISD, is relatively small in size for a neighborhood high school in Houston (3 stories). I think it has a baseball diamond area and that's it. It was built in the 1950s.

Originally Posted by LALady

Speak for yourself. I'm attached to my condo and my condo community.

Well, I was referring to a trend regarding multi-family housing; it's moreso with apartments, though.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Could this design be used in Socal to build a school upwards?

This is actually kind of humorous. In a part of LA where numerous highrise buildings failed during the Northridge Earthquake, you propose to build a highrise school.

Yep! That's a really *not cool* idea. Why don't you make it 20 stories tall instead of ten?

You are from Texas. Why does all of this matter to you? You're an outsider trying to figure out what matters to insiders -- and personally, I don't think you are worth giving the time of day to unless you come clean on your motives.

[Vicman]

So highrise buildings had problems in Northridge: Well, isn't there a way to design a highrise to withstand an earthquake? It's 2009. Northridge was in 1994. Surely someone figured out how to build buildings to avoid what happened in 1994.

Originally Posted by UB50

This is actually kind of humorous. In a part of LA where numerous highrise buildings failed during the Northridge Earthquake, you propose to build a highrise school.

Yep! That's a really *not cool* idea. Why don't you make it 20 stories tall instead of ten?

You are from Texas. Why does all of this matter to you? You're an outsider trying to figure out what matters to insiders -- and personally, I don't think you are worth giving the time of day to unless you come clean on your motives.

[UB50]

Vicman,

There are numerous properties available for development along Van Nuys Blvd. Why are you not trying to develop those?

The one I mentioned just north of Vanowen is just one. There are a lot of others if you head further north.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by UB50

Vicman,

There are numerous properties available for development along Van Nuys Blvd. Why are you not trying to develop those?

The one I mentioned just north of Vanowen is just one. There are a lot of others if you head further north.

That's cool! Are there any south of Burbank? Or any that are close to Burbank but a bit north? If there's an abandoned property it's a good place to propose a new school.

[Vicman]

I realized something:

1. The abandoned building in Van Nuys that UB50 mentioned could be razed and a new Van Nuys Middle School could be built there.
2. If Millikan Middle would not be overwhelmed by serving every area in the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, we could simply have the existing Van Nuys Middle, located in Sherman Oaks, converted into a high school. Then Millikan would be the area middle school. The new Van Nuys MS would serve much of Van Nuys proper, while the rest would go to Fulton 6-8. If this idea would work, then there's no need to buy any property in Sherman Oaks.

[SandyCo]

While Grant High School certainly wasn't the best place for my kids (safety or education!), I'm not sure another high school in Sherman Oaks would have been any better, especially if it was still LAUSD. And although the rental market in general has softened considerably due to the recession, housing prices are still at a premium here in comparison to most other areas of the country.

I also have to wonder why this topic is of such interest and intense scrutiny to someone who is living in Texas. I don't care how similar L.A. is. It still strikes me as a bit odd.