Architects

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With $9.2 billion in Proposition 1A funds coming down the pike for school construction, architects are battling the construction industry over whether schools should be custom designed or built from a stock set of plans, using a “cookie-cutter” approach.

At stake are millions of dollars in architectural fees for L.A.-area firms, which the building industry argues would be better allocated toward construction. Ironically, the 51 schools being built by the Los Angeles Unified School District with Proposition BB funds will likely be custom designed and thus are not part of the controversy.

Whichever approach a school district embraces to build its new schools, the amount of state money it receives remains the same: $5,200, $5,500, or $7,200 per pupil, depending on whether the construction is for elementary, middle, or high school students. Each district is free to decide how much of that money to devote to design.

Currently, school districts throughout the state routinely reuse design plans, but the LAUSD hasn’t used stock plans for multiple schools for almost half a century, said Gordon Wohlers, assistant superintendent for policy research and development.

“From what I’ve heard, the last time our district used the cookie-cutter approach was back in the ’50s, when growth in the Valley was at a very high level. They were opening schools like once a month. Those schools are still holding up pretty well.”

It’s generally agreed that following a cookie-cutter approach to school design is no longer feasible in Los Angeles, because the area is largely built out.

“Fifty years ago in Los Angeles, there was lots of flat land,” said Michael Lehrer, president-elect of the American Institute of Architects’ Los Angeles chapter and a member of the citizens’ committee charged with reviewing how the LAUSD spends $2.4 billion in Proposition BB funds. “Back then you could pick whatever sites you wanted, and they could be whatever size you needed,” he said. “But now land is hard to find, and sometimes land that might be appropriate for acquisition is not conventional in any way.”

Even John Hakel, executive director for the southern division of the Associated General Contractors of California, said the 51 new LAUSD schools slated for construction under Proposition BB should be custom-designed.

“The problem you run into with cookie-cutter schools is that all of the sites don’t have the same parameters,” said Hakel, who also serves on the Prop. BB oversight committee.

But for other school districts, the issue of whether to allocate Prop 1A money toward custom design is a contentious one. The construction industry, which stands to gain whatever fees architects lose, says it can reduce the cost of building schools, and produce more bang for the taxpayer’s buck, by using standardized plans.

“A standardized plan streamlines project delivery and the approval process for inspection and acceptance of construction,” said Tom Holsman, executive vice president of the Associated General Contractors of California. “From a contractors’ standpoint, a standardized plan is much easier to bid and deliver. And equally important, more money will be left for school construction. We’ll be able to provide more classrooms for the same number of dollars.”

“From a purely fiscal viewpoint, if you have a school that has this kind of classroom, and this type of gym, and this type of cafeteria, and you’re going to build 12 of them, you’ll get a better deal on the material,” added Hakel of the general contractors’ group. “You can go to the supplier and say, ‘I need 12 roofs.’ He’ll say, ‘Whoa, I can get you a heck of a deal.’ ”

Architects, however, argue that custom designs make for better facilities, and are in fact more cost-efficient in the long run.

“You can’t simply build the same building in Truckee as you can in Los Angeles,” said Philip Bujakowski, Sacramento lobbyist and director of governmental relations for the American Institute of Architects. “There are different climate zones, geographies, wind loads. Any savings you’ve recovered would be spent on adapting the plan to the site. And the plans get out of date quickly.”

Architect Lehrer said that the apparent savings are illusory. “There’s an idea that stock plans are going to save you money because you have a solution that you can just plop down,” he said. “But it’s generally a false economy, because by the time you customize the stock plan to the idiosyncrasies of the site, neighborhood and building code issues, you’ve spent just as much money, and it’s no longer a stock plan.”

Tim Coyle, senior vice president of governmental affairs for the California Building Industry Association, said his organization, which represents homebuilders, strongly supports reusing a somewhat standardized design plan for multiple schools.

“We argued it was frankly abusive for the cost of new schools to be so high, the amenities to be so great, and the inefficiencies to be so great,” Coyle said. “We did not advocate for stock plans, per se, but we did strongly advocate for reuse of plans, and for greater efficiencies, including modular classrooms.”

Architects’ lobbyist Bujakowski countered that the factory-built modular classrooms, which are put on permanent foundations at grade level, are shoddy structures and don’t save money in the long run.

“We’re not looking to build Taj Mahals,” he said. “But we do want schools to last a little bit. You expect a certain amount of longevity to come out of it, so you won’t be rebuilding or substantially repairing in 10 years.”

If districts do opt to use stock plans instead of hiring architects to create fresh designs, small firms would lose out the most, said Bob Newsom, president of the American Institute of Architect’s L.A. chapter.

“There are 6,000 architects in Southern California, and most of those are firms with three to 10 people,” said Newsom. “Those small firms are typically the ones that design schools in districts, except for very large projects. Stock plans are done without respect to site or local needs, whereas the local architect has a sense of the community, and understands the local conditions.”

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