A Modern Abe

Upgrades to enhance historic Lincoln HS in San Francisco

By Robert Carlsen

A major modernization and expansion project is under way at the 68-year-old Abraham Lincoln High School in the Sunset district of San Francisco.

McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. is the construction manager on this $28 million project. The company has the lion’s share of the construction management contracts of the 2003 San Francisco Unified School District’s Proposition A Bond program, which is primarily funding the project.
The architect is San Francisco-based Levy Design Partners, which has been working with SFUSD on a variety of projects since 1995, and the general contractor is Arntz Builders of Novato.

The Proposition A Bond program is financed, in large part, by two local bonds passed by local voters in November 2003 and November 2006. The 2003 bond authorized the issuance of $295 million which, when augmented by state matching funds, provided the funds necessary to improve 32 school facilities at 30 sites. The 2006 bond authorized the issuance of $450 million, which, along with state matching, would pay for improving 64 school facilities at 59 sites.

SFUSD has a total student enrollment of 55,497 at 104 K-12 school sites.

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According to McCarthy’s project manager and superintendent Bill Randall, the Lincoln High School project includes the construction of a new two-story building in the center of campus and adjacent to the auditorium. The building will feature 18 additional classrooms. The modernization portion of the project includes a multitude of ADA work, including doors, ramps, access lifts, elevators and cabinets, as well as accessible seating and barrier removals, according to Randall.

“Our main challenge with this project is time,” says Randall. “It’s being phased to allow for student and faculty movement and it’s critical that due dates are met so classes can relocate, and new phasing can start.”

Randall adds that working during the school year is very restrictive with demanding noise and vibration requirements pushing work to off hours. Also critical, he says, is to make major strides during the summer vacation period.

In the dead center of the Sunset District, Abraham Lincoln High School occupies four blocks demarcated by the intersections of Quintara Street & Santiago Street and 22rd Avenue & 24th Avenue. The school is also located near the Sunset Reservoir, which supplies the water for the entire Sunset district and serves as a rectangular, city-block track for physical education, and directly north of McCoppin Square and the Parkside branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

Abraham Lincoln High School was established on Aug. 27, 1940. A 1938 bond issue, approved by San Francisco voters to address the increasing population in the Western San Francisco area, financed the incorporation of Abraham Lincoln High School with a three-story building of 50 classrooms, library, and cafeteria as well as a football field, costing over $750,000 in 1940. Additions such as the North and South Gymnasiums, the auditorium, and the bungalow expansion were completed later.

The Prop A Bond Program is managed by an integrated team consisting of SFUSD project management staff and Kwan Henmi-Parsons, a joint venture team that provides a wide range of program management services including design management of 24 architectural engineering firms and program reporting.

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