Daily Business Report-Sept. 3, 2013
The new Downtown Central Library . Photo by Stephen Whalen Photography
Big Visions for High School in
New Downtown Library
San Diego’s iconic, new Downtown library won’t be open to the public until the end of the month, but classes start today for students going to the charter high school housed on the building’s sixth and seventh floors. KPBS reports.
Six days before the start of school for about 260 freshmen and sophomores at the new school, which is called e3 Civic High, teachers and administrators were getting their first full workday in at the library. The reception desk was still under construction. Boxed-up furniture was making its way to the school’s entrance on the library’s sixth floor slowly, in the one working elevator. Construction delays kept the staff from moving into the school floors in July, as originally planned.
But walking through the on-going construction in glass-walled rooms, the school’s executive director Helen Griffith could already see her school as it will be. “So, this is physics,” she said walking into a large room where floor-to-ceiling windows made up the far wall. The room was empty except for some white tables jumbled around the open space. “Nice sized classroom; we’ll have a little fabrication lab here with laser cutters and other machinery as we move into robotics, our wet area over there for experiments and the rest of this is classroom space,” she said.
All of e3’s spaces are built for working in teams. Some of the classrooms look like conference rooms and other spaces are designed to bring teachers and students together in casual ways. “It was designed as a collaborative model,” Griffith said. “You’ll see glass walls. You’ll see flexible seating furniture that resembles a Starbucks, a comfortable setting. You’ll see learning spaces that are study niches, 21st century technology throughout the building.”
San Diego Attracting Venture Capital Investment
In a recent study aimed at tracking venture capital investing in over 100 metro areas, San Diego came in as the sixth U.S. city, based on dollars of venture capital invested. One of the study’s coordinators, Richard Florida, summarized: “Venture capital is more distributed than it was in the late 1980s…While Silicon Valley remains a leading center for venture investment, it appears less dominant than it once was.” In addition to San Francisco, a number of other metros across the United States, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Boston in the Northeast are significant centers for venture capital investment, as are Los Angeles and San Diego in Southern California, and Seattle, Austin, and Chicago, said Florida.
Southwest Strategies Promotes Elizabeth Hansen
Elizabeth Hansen has been promoted from director of public affairs to vice president at Southwest Strategies in San Diego. Hansen is a public affairs professional with experience in strategic planning and implementation of community, government and media outreach programs. At Southwest Strategies, she serves as a senior writer, coordinating client projects and managing research and marketing efforts, as well as publicity programs. Outside of work, Hansen serves as a vice chair of the Scripps Miramar Ranch Planning Group. She also serves as a board member for the YMCA of San Diego County’s Youth & Family Services board of directors and Holiday and Poinsettia Bowls Committee.
