Air Conditioning Breaks Down in Unbelievably Expensive High Tech Building Just Completed at Santa Monica High School

9.6.22: Students are back from summer vacation and the weather in Santa Monica is near 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This has been the hottest week of 2022 so far.

Multiple reports from students are that the air conditioning in their brand spanking new $195,000,000 classroom building, doesn't work. The building was completed in 2021 and replaced older structures. The windows do open (unusual for modern construction); otherwise the structure would be unusable.

An SMMUSD "Discovery Building Update" published in 2021, stated the cost of the building was $195,000,000, including cost overruns. https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/032222%20Discovery%20Building%20Presentation_232844d5a5cm2gizpovx4ncgfoyiad.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1HpTNgtroAOdMPh0o2Y49es-pz4T45sSSwV9ETTHTJrcjRDZEolBpdgyY

As Alyssa Erdley of our newspaper wrote in 2019: Ground broke on Tuesday for a new structure, dubbed the Discovery Building, at the santa monica high school campus. Its function is to replace the Science and Technology buildings which were demolished last summer.

The building will form a U around an interior courtyard. Planned to open at the end of 2021, it will contain 38 classrooms, offices for the M and O houses, 3 multipurpose rooms, some common areas, and a full kitchen and cafeteria. A rooftop garden will serve as another classroom and a suite for medically fragile students is planned. The current indoor swimming pool will be abandoned in favor of a new outdoor swimming pool beside the new structure.

Bond measure ES, approved by voters in 2012, funds the construction with $385 million.

Architectural Record says the Samohi Discovery building cost $155 million. "The five-story, $155 million Discovery building-which includes classrooms, administration offices, a large cafeteria, a suite for medically fragile students, an Olympic-length outdoor pool, and a two-level parking garage-was designed with lounge-like common areas in place of dedicated corridors, and movable interior partitions throughout, maximizing flexibility." https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15452-discovery-building-at-santa-monica-high-school-by-moore-ruble-yudell-and-hed?fbclid=IwAR0giBykT3YTJ79wVHXHnmQIpIzlilKLzZgVN5TXR20sbpwvC_hsngqi0fA#:~:text=The%20five%2Dstory%2C%20%24155%20million,dedicated%20corridors%2C%20and%20movable%20interior