Reuse Assistance Grant Progress Report

Reusing Entertainment as Education

Like a scene from a Hollywood movie or a child's storybook, the Kenter Canyon Charter School's dream of building a state-of-the-art library for its students is coming true. The happy ending is the result of the unexpected discovery of a beautiful house, which was about to be demolished, the vision of parents who believed it could be reused for the benefit of their children and classes yet to come, and financial support by many businesses and government agencies, including a $50,000 Reuse Assistance Grant provided by the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

The graceful craftsman-style building that starred in the movie Life as a House was destined to become demolition debris until it was rescued by parents of children attending the Kenter Canyon School and targeted for reuse as the school's new library. 

The current cramped and outdated library of Kenter Canyon School, a public elementary school in Los Angeles, was built in 1955 for a student body much smaller than the current 420 who are enrolled, and barely accommodates one full classroom of children.

Several years ago, the financially strapped Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) discontinued funding for libraries throughout the district and the Kenter Canyon School was among those closed. The parents of the Kenter Canyon Parent Support Group (KCPSG), worked to reopen the library in 1993 on a part-time basis, by raising money for a part-time librarian and a small stipend for books and supplies. 

During the summer of 2000 parents, teachers, and administrators received a grant from LAUSD to create a functional and comfortable teaching and reading library. The concept of the "New Library" was born, a Library Committee was formed, and the expansion plan began. 

In 2001, a Kenter Canyon School parent discovered that a fully engineered and architecturally distinctive house, built of Douglas fir for the New Line Cinema film, Life as a House, was scheduled to be demolished at the end of filming. The post and beam building was originally constructed in a shop as a kit of parts; it was then dismantled and reassembled on the movie set.

A November 7, 2001, Los Angeles Times article entitled "And the House Lived Happily Ever After" describes how the film's costume designer, Molly Maginnis, a Kenter Canyon parent, showed fellow parent, architect Scott MacGillivrary, the house the day before it was slated to be demolished. MacGillivrary was amazed at the building's value and conceived the idea of reusing it as a new library for Kenter Canyon School. 

Once the donation of the building by the film company was legally completed, a team of 20 professional carpenters spent four days taking the building apart, numbering all the pieces, and putting them in storage. Warner Technology, Inc., a community partner in the new library project, donated the workers' wages.

The school is currently in the process of reconstructing the building on the school's front lawn, where it will serve as a constant reminder to students, teachers, parents, and neighbors of the necessity to incorporate the concepts of reuse in their lives.

Back to Top

The library project is the largest instance of reuse ever conducted at the Kenter Canyon School, but the administration and the parent committee have repeatedly exercised this type of creative thinking about reuse. When the school rebuilt its playground four years ago, LAUSD saved the replaced equipment and installed it at another school in the district. Additionally, several years ago, parent volunteers built a reading garden at the school using bricks that were salvaged from a construction site.

This library project is a creative and productive way to promote reuse and encourage the recovery and reuse of construction materials that would have otherwise been disposed. It also shows that thinking "outside the box" can result in ways to reuse materials in many venues, particularly for educational purposes. This successful connection between the film industry, which has a reputation for wasting resources, and public education, which needs resources, enables both parties to become beneficiaries.

The school's initial concept to add onto and remodel the existing library would have required demolition and significant remodeling, expenditures of natural resources and energy, at a cost about 50 percent higher than building from scratch. By reusing the large quantity of high quality lumber and hardware already purchased and used by the film studio, Kenter Canyon School became a partner with community groups and governmental agencies, whose mission is to eliminate waste and cultivate creative reuse opportunities.

The story of the house that became a library will be a model throughout the district and even the nation for managing resources more efficiently and for other business-community-school partnerships to reuse buildings and construction materials that otherwise might be destroyed. Additionally, the Kenter Canyon School Library will become a showplace to demonstrate how the CIWMB assists schools in reusing materials to enhance education.  

This library project sets an example that there are solutions to be found in reuse of land, buildings, and building materials, whether from business sources or from within the school district itself. This is especially critical at a time when the entire district has a shortage of classroom space and a dearth of money for expansion. There is a potential for this story of the house that starred in a movie and became a children's library to inspire many other similar "happy endings."

At the special screening and reception of Life as a House, which the New Library Committee used to raise approximately $16,000 for the project, the film's production designer Dennis Washington told parents of his joy that the house would survive. "Usually what we do is bulldoze," he said.  "I'm thrilled this house has a chance for a second life." This "second life" will not only will provide the current students at the school with their first adequate library in nearly half a century, but it will serve students and the school community for many years to come.

*Text for this article was provided by Leigh Austin.

Back to Top | FY 2001/2002 Grant Recipients | Reuse Home

Last updated: June 25, 2008