News | Monterey Bay Academy

MBA Library Undergoes Complete Renovation

Sunday, December 21, 2006

Monterey Bay Academy (MBA) students have a new reason to hit the books this year, because on Wednesday, September 27, the school unveiled the completely renovated Hoskins Memorial Library.

With a generous gift from Dr. Edward Allred (see the spring 2006 issue of Sandscripts) this past Christmas season, MBA quickly made plans and went to work in March tearing down the old library to make way for a new facility. The library hadn’t been renovated or even recarpeted since 1965, so MBA’s administration and plant services team decided on a complete renovation starting from the cement foundation and bare walls of Grunke Hall.

“When I was a student at MBA, the library looked exactly as it did prior to the renovation,” Brandon Parker, vice principal of operations and class of ’92 graduate said. “I feel like it’s an improvement, because it was thought through and executed with such a large attention to detail. We didn’t cut corners when it came to aesthetics. When I was a student, the library didn’t exude an atmosphere of academia. Now, it’s a place that you find yourself wanting to be in. You want to sit down in the library and read.”

In order to achieve this atmosphere, MBA called in one of its own to do the job. Khris Hayes ’97, whose wife, Anna ’97, teaches Spanish at MBA and whose parents, Ralph and Yvonne, have been working on campus for over 18 years, took on the task of creating a “California Mission” look and feel for the library. A carpenter working in the area for the past seven years, Hayes took special care to make sure the library not only looks good, but is built well enough to last the next 50 years of student use.

Some of the new changes to the library include a circulation desk with a marble countertop, completely new shelving and study tables, new lighting fixtures, a collection of Tiffany lamps (a gift from the class of 1951), an in-ceiling retractable screen for presentations, and new desks for the library’s computer lab. The new library also provides an unobstructed view through the windows facing the ocean, which were mostly covered with bookcases for the past 40 years.

“It really opens up this place,” Kinzie Speyer, school librarian and class of 1976 graduate said. “With the new windows the students can have the view of the ocean and our campus without having to hear everything that’s going on. I love it because this is the most beautiful place on campus and I get to work in it.”

Students are finding that the new library is a nice place to do their work as well. Meshach Faaeteete, a senior from South San Francisco and the class president, has found the library is a great place to study and escape from the hustle and bustle of boarding academy life. Since the library opened, he’s even adjusted his work schedule so that he can spend an extra hour there to study every day.

“The new library is great,” Faaeteete said. “I like the fact that everything’s brand new. It’s all so nice and neat. Mostly though, it’s just a great place to go on campus for a nice quiet atmosphere. As a student, it’s the place I want to go to study.”

MBA Library Undergoes Complete Renovation

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