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ARTS GROUP SETS ITS SIGHTS ON OLD PACIFIC VIEW SCHOOL

Art Pulse would buy prime Encinitas land for $7.5 million

ENCINITAS — A former elementary school on prime coastal property in Encinitas could be rebuilt into an arts and performance center.

The Encinitas Union School District board of trustees voted 4-1 this week to enter into negotiations with the nonprofit Art Pulse. The organization is proposing to buy the land from the district for $7.5 million to turn it into an arts center. The two sides will negotiate toward a March 2 deadline to finalize a deal.

The district has been trying to capitalize on the former site of Pacific View Elementary since the school closed in 2003 due to declining enrollment. Years of past redevelopment proposals have failed, and the district is now suing the city of Encinitas for twice denying to rezone the 2.8-acre parcel for residential development. The lawsuit would be dropped if Art Pulse and the district reach a deal.

The district rejected three other proposals for the land and a fifth withdrew.

Art Pulse would tear down Pacific View but retain an 1883 historic school on the property. It would build classrooms, an open-air amphitheater, industrial art space and underground parking, said April Game, the organization’s executive director. Renowned architect James Hubbell and his son, Drew, would design the center.

Encinitas Union Superintendent Tim Baird said he thought the situation could turn out great for the district’s goal of capitalizing on the property while also retaining the space as a community asset.

Pacific View, built in 1953, is in downtown Encinitas, about a block from the ocean. A prerecession estimate of the land was $13 million, and Baird has said the district aims to maximize profits to use toward education. Like most districts in the state, Encinitas Union has seen its budget reduced. The district cut its budget by $3 million this school year and could face an additional $5 million cut next year, Baird said.

Art Pulse, based at Liberty Station, has $4 million in hand and would make a $400,000 nonrefundable deposit should negotiations succeed, Baird said. Game said she has six donors who have pledged a minimum $300,000 to $500,000 each to help build the center. The organization would fundraise to help pay for the purchase and development of the center, she said.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/18/tp-arts-group-sets-its-sights-on-old-pacific-view/

Date: 02/02/2012 – 6:00pm – 10:00pm

Join SDAFon 2.2.12 for some food, drink, art, and of course some 20×20 presentations at PechaKucha Night SD V14 at the Mingei International Museum.

http://sdarchitecture.org/event/2012/01-20/pechakucha-night-san-diego-volume-14

Great News San Diego!

Rain Barrel Rebates for City of San Diego customers are here! The program started January 15th, and there are limited funds, so act fast. The more demand we show for rebates, even if they run out, the more likely this program will take off as a more substantial offering for the Water Conservation Department. If you have a barrel/tank purchased after January 1st, the Public Utilities Department will rebate $0.50/gallon up to 400 gallons or $200! See the following link for details and to get an application:

http://www.sandiego.gov/water/conservation/resrainwaterharvesting.shtml

If you are thinking of getting a tank soon to take advantage of this great opportunity, check out The Tank Source, in Alpine, our local Tank Supplier. You won’t find better prices:

http://www.thetankssource.com/sandiegotank/

Also, if you need help getting started, Brook Sarson offers consultations as well as installations for rainwater tanks as well as greywater systems.

You can visit her website at http://h2o-me.com/.

-Brook Sarson

Planning Grants Announced

Open Spaces Sacred Places: The Healing Power of Nature, National Awards Program for Integrated Research and Design Projects, announces the selection of $500,000 in planning grants to 11 cross-disciplinary teams funded through the TKF Foundation.

The planning grant awardees exhibit the potential to generate more complete knowledge about the benefits and impacts that result from user experiences of nature-based sacred spaces in cities. Selected projects embody the potential to be replicable in their intent, and generalizable in the challenges they address, to serve as possible archetypes for the design of urban areas across the U.S.

The eleven teams are:

From Afar: Garden of Transitions, Utica, NY  Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees

The Green Road, Bethesda, MD Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

Intergenerational/Multicultural Community Garden, Malden, MA City of Malden Redevelopment Authority

Landscapes of Resilience: Understanding the creation and stewardship of Open Spaces Sacred Places, Joplin, MO & Detroit, MI Cornell University Civic Ecology Lab

Mechanisms of Nature Restoration, Washington, DC & Baltimore, MD Metro Areas Rotman Research Institute

Naval Hospital Cemetery Memorial Landscape, Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

An Open Space Sacred Place for Life Enhancement, Tucson, AZ & Bronx, NY Canyon Ranch Institute

Reflections: People on the Waterfront, Seattle, WA Pomegranate Center

The Space Within, San Diego, CA Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek

Therapeutic Healing Garden, Portland, OR Emanuel Medical Center Foundation

Waukegan Area Sacred Spaces, Waukegan, IL Parkland College

For more information and a full listing of grantee team members, please visit:

http://www.opensacred.org/grants/planning-grant-awardees

Final Request for Proposals:

The final phase of the Open Spaces Sacred Places National Awards Program for Integrated Research and Design Projects’ Request for Proposals will be released February 1, 2012. The program was enacted in 2 phases, a Planning Grant Phase, now closed, followed by an open call for proposals. Final Awards will fund significant new sacred public green spaces that demonstrate a combination of high quality design-build and rigorous research about user impacts. The total funding pool available is $4 million. Funding will be provided to cross-disciplinary teams that are able to 1) conceptualize, plan, design and implement an open and sacred green space, 2) conduct associated research study(ies), and 3) communicate scientific findings.

Note: A prior planning grant award is not a criterion for eligibility to apply for the final funding phase of the National Awards, nor will planning grant recipients be automatically favored in the National Awards review process. The Awards Program is open to any project proposal that meets the eligibility criteria as specified in the request for proposals to be released 2/1/12.

Connections

‘The garden is beautiful; it has come so alive with life – flowers blooming, birds singing, sun shimmering, and the little stream running through. What more do we want or need? Nothing – this is the sustenance of the human spirit.’

Journal entry from the Open Spaces Sacred Places bench at the Anne Arundel Medical Center.

The most recent edition of Friends of Kebyar (Volume 27.1,  Issue Number 76, 2011) features displays from the exhibition “American Organic Architecture, The Heritage of Frank Lloyd Wright” which took place in Russia this past year. Display panels showing some of James Hubbell’s projects were included in the show and are featured in the magazine, seen below.