Months after the announcement of a new learning center and multiplex replacing Building 38, San Quentin Rehabilitation Center administration and construction team projected to commence with breaking ground in late May.
After gutting and completion of the asbestos abatement of the former furniture factory building, demolition of Building 38 commenced May 28.
“It is an honor to be involved in the transformation for the population and to facilitate the transition to a new learning center,” Warden Chance Andes said.
The plans for the learning center showed three buildings in a staggered design that makes them look like six buildings. Roughly 80,000 square feet of usable building space and around 120,000 square feet around the complex would allow for studying and outdoor classes.
A workshop design team of 20 residents and eight outside professionals took on the goal of imbuing a college-campus feel on the new learning center complex, said San Quentin resident Tony Tafoya. Vic Lewis, the CDCR’s director of facilities planned to aid with the ascetics within and around the learning center.
Resident Kenny Rogers said a big focus for the design team is to create a college campus vibe.
“I am excited to take part in something that would influence the future of incarceration in California,” Rogers said.
Plant life would play a large role in achieving that goal. A sensory garden and more than a handful of serene areas will give residents a place to sit and work on schoolwork or tutoring.
The residents on the design team responded to the task of coming up with proposals for the aesthetic appearance for each area of the center.
According to an early blueprint, some of the outside space would consist of seven seating areas, an outdoor amphitheater, and a central gathering place in the middle of the building’s complex. At the front entrance of the learning center, a hundred-foot tribune for residents to watch sporting events on the Lower Yard would separate the yard from the complex. To ensure safety and security, always a top priority, an emergency access lane will encircle the buildings.
Warden Andes said he believed the new building could improve mental health and wellness by providing an outdoor environment in which residents could sit surrounded by trees and greenery.
Tafoya said another focus for the design team would preserve and re-purpose as much of the materials from the old building as possible. He said the design team has proposed several eco-friendly ideas to reclaim the old furniture for outside benches and seating areas throughout the campus.
Tafoya said that the rustic steel doors previously used as an access point decades ago, would be preserved and used as an art piece. In re-purposing old materials the team has proposed ideas for outside canopies from the old beams. The old wooden floor boards could make soundproofing in the new Media Center building, he said. Other proposals include the use of Building 38’s steel hinges, and any other scrap material for multi-purpose use and other artistic displays.
Tafoya said the building has stood through the Great Depression and World War II and re-purposing some of the old material can preserve the history of the old building. “This new space recognizes the past while creating a space to heal moving forward with healing, giving back, and making amends.”
Warden Andes said without any hold-ups with construction, progress would be noticeable by autumn of this year, and the new building could begin construction early next year. He said he did not know whether inmate day labor would participate in the process.
Resident Chris Rooms, a coding program student said he felt encouraged by the prospect of a new building.
“A new building means progress and the possibility of bringing modern technology and opportunities to San Quentin is giving residents a campus to live on rather than a prison to be held in.”
