Breaking Ground For Ground-Breaking Green School

By Mark Lemmerman

Mayor Willie Brown, a white hard hat on his head, picked up a shovel last April and helped break ground for the new Argonne Child Development Center on 16th Avenue in the Richmond District of San Francisco.

The center will be the first solar powered school in San Francisco. There will be four classrooms, and it will be able to accommodate 96 students. The new school was funded by the 1997 passage of Proposition A.

"This is the prototype for all developmental centers," Mayor Brown said. "This has been a long time coming, but future schools will be shorter now."

Brown said that every new school under construction will feed off the "green concept," which means using recyclables.

The school, which was designed by the 450 Architects firm, will be built from recycled materials. The project started in 1995.

"I am very excited," said David Bushnell, one of the architects who designed the new school. "The building is very much like the initial building that we had in mind."

Bushnell said it felt natural to integrate the solar technology. "We are using renewable energy and setting a standard, " he said.

"It is a really well-designed school," said Bushnell. "It is an honest, simple construction."

The original 56-year-old center was constructed for women to leave their children while they went to work during the war. In 1974, the Argonne community garden was formed, and it still stands today.

"I miss the old school," said Cecilia Wan, a teacher's assistant who has worked at Argonne for 10 years. "But it will be nice to have the classrooms looking over the garden."

The new design will incorporate the garden into the school. There will be a playground and a classroom for children to sit and look at the garden.

"I love the pioneering spirit in San Francisco," said Mary Hernandez, the president of the school board. "It is giving every child a head start for making our world a better place."

"It's cool," said David, a 4-year-old student at Argonne. "My school is a big hole."

The actual construction will be done by Kin Wo Construction Inc. and is expected to take at least six months.