Here is a glimpse into the new Palo Alto High School Media Arts Center, which is set to officially open in August. It will be a two-story, multi-functional building, housing all of Paly’s journalism, video production, photography and some English classrooms.

In June 2008, voters passed Measure A to allow for classroom expansion due to the growing student population. This measure, as well as a $2.7 million Career Technical Education grant, funded the construction project.

The goal of the Media Arts Center design was to not just build “cookie cutter classrooms,” according to journalism teacher Paul Kandell, and journalism students helped create the plans for the building. Partly modeled after the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, the Media Center is built to last with a futuristic design. The building has a very open feel, incorporating large common spaces and many full story glass windows.

Furthermore, innovative rooms will be incorporated into the building design. Paly, working with its alumni association and the Palo Alto Historical Association, plans to maintain a library in the new building, where archives of all copies of Paly publications ever printed will be stored and digitized for public use.