AMBASSADOR PUT ON FAST TRACK SINGLE FIRM WILL DESIGN, BUILD NEW SCHOOL.Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer Hoping to speed up construction of a new high school at the old Ambassador Hotel site near downtown, the Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. board Tuesday approved using a novel approach of a single developer designing and building the $202 million project. The Ambassador project, long stalled by litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. , has taken on added importance because of the likely abandonment of the troubled Belmont Learning Center This Belmont Learning Center contains information about a building currently under construction. It may contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as construction progresses and new information becomes available. project downtown. Usually, schools are designed, put out for bid and then built by a contractor, but the ``design-build'' approach, which was the original plan for Belmont, simplifies the process to a single step, allowing for construction to proceed more quickly. Robert Moeller, director of new construction for the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. , said the design-build process can hurry the Ambassador project by up to one year, allowing it to open in 2006-07. ``Early communication between the designer and the builder will prevent delays,'' said Moeller, who previously worked for the U.S. Navy and has 12 years' experience in design-build projects. ``Any errors and omissions errors and omissions n. short-hand for malpractice insurance which gives physicians, attorneys, architects, accountants and other professionals coverage for claims by patients and clients for alleged professional errors and omissions which amount to negligence. in design will be the responsibility of the design-build team, not the district. It's going to reduce a lot of the traditional finger-pointing.'' However, having one entity develop an entire project has its risks, precisely because of the cozy See COSE. relationship between the designer and builder. Architect Michael Lehrer, who sits on the district's school construction bond citizens oversight committee, said at an earlier meeting that tensions between an architect and a builder are sometimes necessary to ensure that no corners are cut. ``If the design gets short shrift short shrift n. 1. Summary, careless treatment; scant attention: These annoying memos will get short shrift from the boss. 2. Quick work. 3. a. , it would not be a good thing. At every stage, there needs to be vigilance and smart thinking,'' he said. Richard Sheehan, the board's legal counsel, took pains to disclose risks of going the design-build route, noting that such an approach has a long list of both advantages and disadvantages. Design-build as a way to build new schools was codified cod·i·fy tr.v. cod·i·fied, cod·i·fy·ing, cod·i·fies 1. To reduce to a code: codify laws. 2. To arrange or systematize. as part of the state Education Code and took effect Jan. 1 this year, due to lobbying by the construction industry. ``This is something pushed by the construction industry,'' said Sheehan. ``It's not as if the Legislature was in love with the concept.'' Sheehan raised concerns about the cost of defining the scope of work for the Ambassador project for bid under the design-build concept. ``My biggest concern from a business standpoint of view is ... to get an idea of how much money is going to be spent before it becomes a fait accompli,'' he said, noting that making changes in midproject would be difficult. Under the design-build statute, district officials have the choice of awarding the project to the ``best value'' bidder, which might not be the lowest responsible bidder. Recalling the star-crossed history of Belmont, first derailed by dangerous gases and recently by an earthquake fault, school board member David Tokofsky openly expressed fears that the novel design-build process could turn into ``design-bilk,'' although he ultimately supported it. ``This is not new. There were moments when Belmont was doing some of this stuff,'' he said. ``This is not baking a cake - the normal way of baking a cake.'' Before going out for bid, Tokofsky stressed, the board first needs to hammer out a vision for the 23.8-acre site at 3400 Wilshire Blvd., proposed for an elementary school elementary school: see school. , middle school and high school to accommodate a total of 4,400 students. The district plans to issue a request for qualifications to identify developers next month and bid the project in midyear mid·year n. 1. The middle of the calendar or academic year. 2. a. An examination given in the middle of a school year. b. midyears A series of such examinations. 2003. There are five options for how a K-12 campus can be built on the historic Ambassador Hotel site - once the favorite haunt of politicians and movie stars - and where Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated as·sas·si·nate tr.v. as·sas·si·nat·ed, as·sas·si·nat·ing, as·sas·si·nates 1. To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons. 2. in June 1968. While preservationists would like to see the hotel rehabilitated, the board has made no decisions on how much of the site will be preserved. Design-build advocates said the complexity of the project and its historic elements make it ideal for the novel construction approach. |
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