New addition to SLA: apartments?

By Isabela Supovitz-Aznar

Loud drilling. Occasional hammering. Construction workers in the stairwells. All of these things have made students wonder: what’s going on in the building at SLA?Unfortunately, this construction work will not be benefiting the school, but is a project to turn part of the building into apartments.The division of ownership of 55 N. 22nd street is an unusual one. The School District of Philadelphia owns all but the fourth floor of the building that SLA is located in, and Philadelphia Management owns the fourth floor. Since the School District doesn’t own the whole building, it is not their decision what happens to the other floor.

In the spring of 2011, Philadelphia Management decided to build apartments in it so that they can make a better profit off of the building. But how will this development affect the school?

Officially, the whole plan of renting out the fourth floor is still under negotiation. If it does end up happening, Mr. Lehmann assures the school that he will try to keep SLA life as completely separate from the apartments as possible.

If the apartments are completed and rented, the school’s environment won’t be changed drastically. The only major concerns about the apartments being in the middle of SLA are the conjoined stairwells, since they would be open for people who lived in the building and students, which Lehmann said is “not appropriate”.

The construction itself has been a disruption at times. English and History teacher Joshua Block said that, “it’s a little unrealistic to have classes going on with all that noise.” English teacher Matt Kay also confirmed that he finds the noise distracts some of his students, and is annoying to deal with in general.

Senior Sam Sirochman agreed. “The noise from the construction workers makes it hard to concentrate sometimes, but it’s been getting a little better lately.” Teachers have been asked to keep track of when and how often the noise is causing a problem, in case a formal complaint needs to be issued.

Even if the apartments are rented, another factor is that SLA’s lease on the building is only for another three years, so the issue of sharing space could be very temporary, if the school seeks to move locations.