Page 36 - BusinessWest September 30, 2024

Matt Brunell in the cafeteria in the new Discovery High School.
Staff Photo
in companies that look like our school. I had the amazing oppor- tunity to work with a team and an architect to design a space that looks like a tech company.”
Meanwhile, the relocation of Discovery High to a downtown office tower might become a model for what other cities can do with office space that isn’t needed anymore and is too difficult (and too expensive) to convert into housing, said Plotkin, adding that, for cities and towns, it might prove cheaper to lease space in buildings like his than build and maintain schools.
“It’s cheaper to buy milk than own cows, as my father used to say,” he noted, adding that this project should generate discus- sion on the subject.
For this issue and its focus on commer- cial real estate, we take an in-depth look at how this project came together and what it means for the many stakeholders involved.
School Daze
Ninety days.
That’s roughly how long Plotkin and the architects and general contractors he assigned to the project had to convert the office space on the 16th and 17th floors after all the involved parties — and there were many of them — had given their respective green lights to Discovery High’s relocation to 1350 Main.
Plotkin recalls being nervous as the days seemingly flew by in August. But those involved got it all done.
And what they created is, as O’Connor said, a high school that not only helps prepare people for the
world of work, but looks like the world of work.
Specifically, the classrooms look more like very large private
offices, complete with glass at the front and back. There’s a grand
staircase that connects the two floors and looks like it belongs in an elaborate corporate headquarters — and it did.
Then there’s the cafeteria, created in a space that was once home to rows of cubicles. As noted earlier, it looks like a tradition- al school cafeteria — but not really.
All this is what Low, Plotkin, Bolduc, Brunell, O’Connor, and others were able to picture back in the spring. Sort of.
Indeed, it would take a while for the picture to start to come together. Meanwhile, there were questions to be answered, said
“The real innovation here was the city as
a campus. The location here, more than any other, provided students with this very unique opportunity to have access to all the assets in the city.”
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36 SEPTEMBER 30, 2024 << COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE >>
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