HBCSD Corruption
Early History: 1924 to 1958 New Schools
1924 - Renowned architect, Richard D. King, designed the four-room main building at North School and Pier Avenue School main classrooms building.
1. North School main building AND Pier Avenue School classroom buildings were designed in a Neo-classical style and built of red brick.*
2. Richard D. King was the great grandfather of Hermosa Beach resident Rick Koening and a South Bay resident.
3. Richard King also designed the iconic French Gothic Villa Riviera in Long Beach, CA, built in 1928.
*NOTE: This original photo of North School before being renovated by Samuel Lunden in 1934 was taken from the Historical Assessment Report of North School by Pamela Daly, May 2016, page 20. This page of Pamela Daly’s report also contains an EXAMPLE of the egregious misinformation contained in her report that was later used for the North School Environmental Impact Report from 2017 to 2019. Altogether there are six fabrications in Pam Daly's first Historical Assessment Report. Even after being alerted to the misinformation, HBCSD and Place Works did NOT remove Pam Daly as the district's historical consultant. Pam Daly continued to misinform in two more egregious fabrications in her FINAL Historical Assessment Report which was also used in the Environmental Impact Report. Please see Lie #18: Misinforming the public as to the historical facts and value of the circa 1934 North School in Pam Daly’s Historic Resource Assessment of North School. Information.
March 10, 1933 - Long Beach Earthquake destroys the main four room building at North School and Pier Avenue School. 230 schools in Long Beach and surrounding areas are destroyed in the earthquake.
April 10, 1933 – Only one month after the March 10, 1933 Long Beach Earthquake, the Field Act is passed by the California legislature which creates stringent earthquake safe building codes for all California schools. The Field Act building requirements are based on stringent dam building regulations put into place in 1929 after the collapse of several dams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Act
1. The Field Act set up the California Department of State Architecture to oversee public school construction.
2. The Field Act made it a felony to build a public school without the use of licensed architects and engineers using mandated Field Act specifications.
3. According to the Seismic Safety Inventory of California Public Schools Report released by the Department of General Services on November 15, 2002:
"Public school buildings in California are the safest in the nation. They exceed the seismic standards required for most other buildings and have proven to provide a level of protection that assures the safety of California's public school children. Since the passage of the Field Act in 1933, no school has collapsed due to a seismic event, and there has been no loss of life.” http://www.laschools.org/new-site/ab300/
4. California Code, Education Code - EDC § 17280.5 (e): “Notwithstanding any law, a leased or purchased building that is determined to have the equivalent pupil safety performance standard as a building constructed according to the Field Act and implementing regulations is hereby deemed to be in full compliance with the safety requirements of a school building as set forth in Section 17280 , and is hereby deemed to be in full compliance with the Field Act.” http://codes.findlaw.com/ca/education-code/edc-sect-17280-5.html
June 1934 – HBCSD receives funding by Congressional action through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and through the Green Emergency Relief Bill to rebuild its schools.
1. Mrs. Carrie Estelle Doheny, matriarch of the Doheny Family Estate (Greystone Mansion and gardens in Beverly Hills) and whose summer house was located at 2408 The Strand in Hermosa Beach asks Samuel E. Lunden to head up the design and reconstruction of Hermosa Beach schools.
2. Samuel Lunden had designed the Doheny Library at USC for the Doheny’s in 1933.
3. Samuel E. Lunden, was a resident of Manhattan Beach.
4. He was chosen by the Hermosa Beach school district to reconstruct North School, South School and Pier Avenue School.
November 1934 – Specifications for the Classroom Building and Shop and Cafeteria - Pier Avenue School of the Hermosa Beach City School District. Approved as to safety November 23 & 26, 1934. Samuel E. Lunden architect, Paul E. Jeffers structural engineer
1. Lunden was born in Chicago, IL and later moved to Pasedena, CA with his family.
2. Lunden attended CALTech and MIT. Lunden was one of fifty graduate students chosen to help with the reconstruction of France after World War I.
3. Lunden also designed the 1929 Pacific Stock Exchange building in Los Angeles and the 1933 Doheny Memorial Library at USC.
4. Lunden went on to become a important leader in transportation, local issues, hospital design, military housing design and building in San Diego, and in drafting legislation for Community Redevelopment Agencies. He served on the Town Hall organization for four years and was elected to serve on the Town Hall Board of Governors in 1955 and served nine years and then as Town Hall president in 1965.
October 1934 to January 1935 – Samuel Lunden designed and reconstructed the main four classroom building at North School using Field Act earthquake safe specifications.
1. Samuel Lunden submitted six pages of blueprints and 61 pages of hand typed instructions for the renovation of the four-classroom main building at North School. DSA application #A-382.
a. Early version of the DSA application for North School (aka Green Bill)
b. Later version of the DSA application #382 for North School.
c. DSA application #383 for the reconstruction of South School
d. Cover sheet for North School specifications – showing approved as to [seismic] safety (Field Act).
e. Los Angeles Times article Hermosa Beach Submits Building Plans dated June 17, 1934.
f. Los Angeles Times article Awards Made of Contracts for New Work dated September 2, 1934.
g. Los Angeles Times article Rusch Completion of South School Reconstruction dated fall 1934.
2. Lunden changed the look of North school from red brick Neo Classical design to Art Deco, Work Progress Administration, Moderne design.
a. Art Deco, WPA, Moderne design is an architectural style of many buildings in the United States completed between 1933 and 1944, during and shortly after the Great Depression as part of relief projects sponsored by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
3. It is very likely that the inset decorative panel above the original entrance at North School of the lamp of learning signifying the burning desire to learn, sitting a top three books with the Greek symbols of Alpha and Omega signifying the sum of all knowledge was a contribution by Samuel Lunden’s friend and business partner, Roger Hayward. https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/hayward
a. Roger Hayward was a classmate of Lunden’s from MIT. Lunden invited Hayward to California in 1928 to help design the interior of the iconic 1929 Pacific Stock Exchange building. Soon after the Great Depression hit, Lunden actively worked in finding his friend, Hayward, work.
b. Roger Hayward was a renowned sculptor, artist, inventor and architect. In 1934 he sculpted a 38-foot model of the moon for the Griffith Park Planetarium (http://astronomy.snjr.net/blog/?p=698). He collaborated with Linus Pauling, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, on several books including the Architecture of Molecules and drew 57 pastel panels of molecules for the book.
c. The decorative inset at North School has a similar motif as on the arch entrance to the Doheny Library at USC, which Lunden with assistance from Hayward had finished the year prior to building North School.
4. Famed structural engineer Paul E. Jeffers was the engineer on the project. Paul Jeffers was a Stanford University graduate and studied at MIT. Following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, Jeffers became a member of a committee to advise the Los Angeles Unified School District of its general program of reconstruction for earthquake-damaged school buildings. He was an expert in seismic effects on structures and took an active role in formulating many earthquake measures which were incorporated in the building codes. He was appointed to the State Board of Registration for Civil and Professional Engineers in 1943 and became its president two years later.
5. 1939 – Two buildings are added to the North School campus, one on either side of the four-classroom main building designed by Samuel Lunden. The new buildings are designed by renowned architectural team of Marsh, Smith and Powell. The two buildings consist of a four-classroom building to the west of the main building and a Kindergarten building to the east of the main building.
a. The buildings are designed to earthquake safe Field Act specifications. DSA application #A-2696 and DSA application #A-2820.
b. The buildings are designed in the Le Corbusier International style.
NOTE: Please also see: May 31, 2016 email from Senior Architectural Historian Debi-Howell Ardila regarding North School eligibility in the City of Hermosa Beach and California historical registers.
NOTE: Please also see: Pam Daly & Associates Historic Resource Assessment Report of North School campus - Summary of Misinformation and Fabrications 2016 to 2019.
1938- 1939 North School additions – Marsh, Smith and Powell designed and constructed another classroom building and the kindergarten building at North School. Two buildings are added to the North School campus, one on either side of the four-classroom main building designed by Samuel Lunden; a four-classroom building to the west of the main building and a Kindergarten building to the east of the main building.
1. The buildings are designed to earthquake safe Field Act specifications. DSA application #A-2696 and DSA application #A-2820. (TL-1939Jan31 NS Classroom addition)
2. The new buildings are designed in the Le Corbusier International style that goes well with the WPA Moderne style of the center Samuel Lunden designed center classroom building.
3. The 1938 kindergarten building eventually becomes the kitchen, cafeteria/multipurpose room for the elementary school.
4. Marsh, Smith and Powell are architects renowned for their cutting-edge, modern designs for school buildings.
1958 – Two more classroom buildings are added to the North School campus; a brick kindergarten building to the west and a brick classroom building to the northeast of the main original buildings. DSA application #A17780. At the same time the 1934 and 1939 classroom buildings are renovated and modified.
1. The interior of the main Samuel Lunden design classroom building is remodeled and the main front entrance to the 1934 building is closed off and replaced with a window.
2. All modifications and additions are made to Field Act specifications as required by law using a licensed structural engineer and architect and overseen by the Department of State Architecture.
April 1, 1960 – Letter to Unification Committee regarding HBCSD property holdings.
1. Hermosa View: 9,841 sq ft classroom space, 7.5 acre site, 329 K-6th grade students.
2. North School: 11,744 sq ft classroom space, 6.2 acre site, 383 K-6th grade students.
3. Pier Avenue School: 15 regular classrooms, 19,948 sq ft, 5.7 acre site, 447 7-8th grade students.
4. Prospect Heights School: 6.370 sq ft, 1.6 acre site, 173 K-4th grade students.