Emeritus College Opens $8.8 Million Center

By: Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

March 20 -- After 30 years and 14 different moves, Emeritus College, a free higher learning institute for senior citizens, held the grand opening of its new $8.8 million headquarters in downtown Santa Monica in style Thursday afternoon.

Framed art worth thousands adorned the lobby of the admissions room, while the strains of Chopin floated from a black Steinway piano in the adjacent student performance hall.

Indeed, a grand opening was in order for the new modern glass building at 1227 Second Street, the first completed project funded by measure U, the $160 million bond passed by Santa Monica and Malibu voters in 2002.

Faculty and volunteers at the campus run by Santa Monica College led waves of curious visitors through the different levels of the building, which figuratively rose from the depths of the school’s previous cramped quarters on the ground level of a parking structure a few blocks away.

“This is the fulfillment of (a) commitment,” said volunteer Walley Grayson, who is taking classes in American plays and playwrights, music appreciation and Yiddish. “Santa Monica College made a commitment that if measure U passed, they would carve out enough to get permanent facilities.”

While funds from measure U built the 24,000-square-foot structure, it is the $750,000 given by nearly 800 donors that protects the learning institution from the cuts other schools, including Santa Monica College, now face under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget.

“The piano downstairs is my baby,” said Ester McVickar. Aside from the piano, the slight, yet sprightly trustee also donated her time and energy to ensure the financial health of the school.

“Don’t you dare ask my age,” said McVicker, whose 84-year-old escort, Sam Polk, sported a metallic necktie shaped as a flying saucer for the occasion.

A “would-be writer,” Polk was “very active” in his current events class and interested in the computer classes.

“A lot of them, like Ester here, are intimidated by the complexity of it and the stories of (computers) crashing and all the aggravation,” Polk said.

“He gets all the aggravation and I get all the results,” chirped Ester.

Both agreed the 24 new and sleek Dell computers with flat screen monitors would encourage many of their fellow students to become more tech-savvy.

Conference rooms, lecture classrooms, workout rooms, art studios, a yoga studio, a concert hall and a bereavement room are all available for the nearly 3,400 students who attend the college, which offers some 110 classes in locations across the city.

Classes offered at the new center range from current affairs, the arts, health and even a stroke-rehabilitation class that is a fraction of the cost of a one-on-one session.

Maggie Hall, associate dean of the program, said that when RTK Architects designed the college, they kept the special needs of seniors in mind.

“The whole furniture plan is designed to help older adults ergonomically and psychologically,” Hall said.

The one “less than desirable design characteristic” of the four-story building is its single elevator, a feature in the footprint of the original building bought by the college, Hall said, adding that there was no way around it.

“But we did invest in Evacu-chairs, in case of an emergency,” Hall said. “In an emergency, we would take someone from their wheelchair or walker and place them on one of these.

“They are really here for the fire department to use,” she said. “They’re the big hefty guys that will lift folks down the stairs.”

A continuing education, as one volunteer said, is a virtue and a privilege not to be taken lightly.

“Emeritus is simply here to help keep older adults’ bodies and minds focused, learning and healthy,” the volunteer said.