August 23, 2016
Dignitaries, school officials and community members gathered on Saturday, Aug. 20, to celebrate the opening of Hoover Elementary School, a project developed by Alten Construction, a full-service San Francisco Bay area commercial construction company.
Hoover Elementary is the first new school in the City of Burlingame in over half a century. The opening was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by tours of the school.
Burlingame school board members, including President Kay Coskey, Vice President Davina Drabkin, Florence Wong, Mark Intrieri and Doug Luftman attended the opening, as well as several area elected officials. City of Burlingame Mayor Ann Keighran was on hand for the ribbon cutting along with Burlingame City Council members Michael Brownrigg, Emily Beach, Donna Colson and Ricardo Ortiz.
“We are very excited to open Hoover Elementary for the children and families in Burlingame,” said Burlingame Superintendent Maggie MacIsaac. “Our partnership with Dreiling Terrones Architecture, Alten Construction, the families in our district and the City of Burlingame have created this beautiful educational environment.”
Several people, including project manager Randall Barbour and superintendent Paul Fitzgerald of Alten Construction, architect Jacob Furlong of Dreiling Terrones Architecture and Burlingame School District Director of Facilities Tim Ryan, led the project.
“Alten Construction has been more than a developer in the Hoover Elementary project – they have acted as a true partner,” said Ryan. “The president, vice president of operations, project manager and superintendent at Alten Construction all rolled up their sleeves and sought solutions instead of sidestepping substantial complications.”
For the past 50 years, Buddhist monks used the 1920s building on the campus as a monastery before selling the property to the Burlingame School District. The Hoover Elementary project focused on two 20,000-square-foot buildings – the renovation of the 1920s building and the construction of a new building that echoes the design of the original Spanish-style building.
“These are two amazing-looking buildings,” said Alten Construction Vice President of Operations Andrew Nortz. “They are some of the most beautiful buildings we’ve ever worked on, perfect in form and function.”
Hoover Elementary also now boasts state-of-the-art amenities, including a new library, cafeteria and two playgrounds. This fall, about 170 students will attend school at the 21st century educational facility, with the school eventually serving 250 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
The Burlingame School District Board of Trustees used bond proceeds from Measure D to develop the school.
