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Big steps continue to be made, report South Pasadena Unified School District officials, on a major renovation project of the athletics department at the local high school.
Costing an estimated $13.5 million, the effort paid for through a bond measure, is expected to be completed in early fall.
Work on the SPHS athletic facilities project calls for improvements to the school’s two gymnasiums, and a redesign of the area on Diamond Avenue from the stadium south to the pool and baseball field. New outdoor basketball courts, tennis courts, visitor bleachers, a new field house, featuring a training, film room, and storage, are also in the plans.
The two gyms, explained SPUSD Superintendent Geoff Yantz, are the key focus, saying most of the work will be done on the older, or what he calls the “main gym,” where the entire floor and bleachers will be replaced, new baskets and backboards installed, the lobby renovated, restrooms and outside ticket booth replaced. In addition, the locker rooms will be gutted, restored, and new team rooms will be built.
Floors of the newer gym on the north side will be sanded, refinished and restriped, and air conditioning units will be added. Once the project is complete, Yantz says the athletic facility will “be more inviting, functional for our students, as well as the community.”
The school’s athletic facilities will be updated, “creating a higher quality and safer environment for student-athletes and a more welcoming and enjoyable space for parents and community,” said Yantz in a letter to parents in the district.
“With a few weeks of dry weather behind and in front of us, we are experiencing scheduled progress and improvements to the site work,” reads a portion of a newsletter sent from the district updating the project. “The new retaining wall along the east elevation has been formed and we are currently placing concrete. We have continued with demolition of the old tennis courts and will begin grading and formwork for the new tennis courts later next month.”
Progress on the field house building, according to the newsletter, “will continue with the delivery of the concrete masonry blocks; and the crew will begin to install walls as well as rough-in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing. Rough electrical, mechanical and plumbing inside the gymnasium/locker/restrooms continues as well. With rough framing also nearing completion, the installation of drywall will commence. Roofing installation is ongoing and we plan to be dried-in by late May, with the new HVAC units placed as well.”
HVAC units were recently delivered to the roof of the school’s gymnasium with the use of a helicopter.
Using funds from the $98 million Measure SP bond measure approved by South Pasadena voters, construction also continues at the South Pasadena Middle School old gymnasium where it is being repurposed into a black box theater, an art lab, and STEM lab.
