HBCSD Corruption

Proof of the lie:

Misinforming the public as to the historical facts and value of North School.

(1) North School was originally designed and built in 1924 by renowned architect Richard D. King. 

(2) Pier Avenue School was originally designed and built in 1911 by architect Richard D. King.  Page 12 & 13, Historic Resource Assessment Report of The North School Campus, Hermosa Beach City School District by Pamela Daly, M.S.H.P., May 2016. 

(3) Both the 1924 North School main building and the 1911 Pier Avenue School were red brick clad buildings designed in the Neoclassical style of architecture.  Page 20, Historic Resource Assessment Report of The North School Campus, Hermosa Beach City School District by Pamela Daly, M.S.H.P., May 2016.  

(4) In March 1933 the Long Beach earthquake severely damaged hundreds of schools in Southern California.

(5) One month after the Long Beach earthquake (April 1933) the California legislature passed the Field Act which specified stringent seismically safe building requirements that were based on the building specifications of the Hoover Dam.  The Field Act also made it a felony to build school buildings without the use of a qualified architect and engineer.  The Field Act also created the Division of State Architects to oversee public school construction.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Act

(6) Renown architect Samuel Lunden designed the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange building in 1929 and the USC Doheny Library in 1934.  He was very active in the Los Angeles and South Bay community associations and was instrumental in routing Pacific Coast Highway through Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, among many other things.  He was a person of importance to the emerging South Bay and early Los Angeles.  

(7) Samuel Lunden lived in Manhattan Beach at the time of the Long Beach earthquake.

(8) The Doheny family had a house on the Strand close to North School.  Mrs. Carrie Estelle Doheny’s summer house was located at 2408 The Strand in Hermosa Beach.

(9) Samuel Lunden had just finished building the Doheny Memorial Library at USC.  It is believed that Mrs. Doheny asked Samuel Lunden to reconstruct Hermosa Beach schools after they were destroyed in the earthquake.  He was chosen by the Hermosa Beach school district to reconstruct North School, South School and Pier Avenue School.

(10) Samuel Lunden reconstructed North School in 1934 and completely changed the look of the original building to WPA Moderne style of architecture.  

(11) Samuel Lunden had six pages of hand-drawn architectural blueprints and sixty-one pages of hand-typed specifications for North School.  North School construction is listed as DSA #A-382 for Hermosa Beach School District. 

(12) Samuel Lunden also reconstructed Pier Avenue School and South School in 1935 also in the WPA Moderne/Art Deco style.  Pier Avenue School is listed as DSA #A-621, #A-692 (classroom building), #A-882 (auditorium) for Hermosa Beach School District.  

(13) One phone call or email to the Division of State Architects (DSA) would have provided correct information on both North School and Pier Avenue School.  There is no excuse for the misinformation in Pam Daly’s reports that were paid for by taxpayers.  HBCSD school board members and superintendent Pat Escalante were made aware of Pam Daly’s misinformation yet continued to use her reports in the Environmental Impact Report and posted Pam Daly’s reports with known misinformation on the internet.

(14) Debi Howell-Ardila, Senior Architectural Historian with SWCA and vice-chair of the Cultural Heritage Commission in South Pasadena with a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Historic Preservation from USC and eleven years’ experience in historic preservation email to the Hermosa Beach City School District and the City of Hermosa Beach, email sent May 31, 2016. 

NOTE:  In comparison, Pam Daly, HBCSD’s hired taxpayer paid “expert”, received her master’s degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont and her undergraduate degree from Elmira College.

“In my opinion, and based on the dozens of schools I’ve

surveyed throughout So Cal, North Elementary appears eligible for

the City of Hermosa Beach Register under local criteria A (“It

exemplifies or reflects special elements of the city’s cultural,

social, economic, political, aesthetic engineering or architectural

history”) C (“It embodies distinctive characteristics of a style,

type, period, or method of construction”), and D (“it is

representative of the notable work of a builder, designer or

architect,” in this case renowned architects Samuel Lunden and

Marsh, Smith and Powell).

  “In terms of the California Register, it appears eligible

under Criteria 1, as a highly representative example of a 1930s

school, as well as Criteria 3, as an outstanding example of WPA

era-Art Deco institutional building.”

NOTE: School Board members and City Council members promptly ignored Debi Howell-Ardila's email regarding the historical importance of North School. It seems that School Board members and City Council members routinely ignore information brought to them by community members. They only seem to pay attention to what they want to hear.