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5/15/25
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Palisades Charter High School (PCHS) has completed the restoration and transformation of the former Sears department store in downtown Santa Monica into a temporary campus for the school. The fast-tracked project provides a safe, fully equipped learning environment for approximately 2,500 PCHS students just three months after the Palisades wildfires devastated the school’s Pacific Palisades campus.
The new campus was built by C.W. Driver Companies. To expedite the conversion and maximize the temporary space, the project team implemented several innovative solutions. Temporary partitions with sound stage style sound blankets were used to quickly create classrooms of varying sizes within the open floor plan, a new air conditioning system was installed to ensure a comfortable environment for students and faculty, fire alarm & fire suppression systems were extended to meet code requirements. These rapid retrofit techniques enabled C.W. Driver and our partners to complete the project in just four weeks, a timeline that would normally take many months, minimizing disruption to students’ education.
Approximately 100k sf of the former Sears store have been repurposed to create a fully functional high school campus. The once-vacant retail space now contains classrooms, along with administrative offices and common areas to accommodate students and faculty. This transformation also highlights the broader trend of retail repositioning—reimagining underutilized commercial spaces for new, impactful uses that serve the community.
Close collaboration with the City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Fire Department and design firm, Gensler, were critical to the project’s speed and success. City officials fast-tracked permits and inspections, allowing fast paced construction to proceed nearly around the clock. As a result, the renovation was completed by April 21, 2025, ensuring PCHS could open the doors of the temporary campus in time for students to finish the school year together on site. The campus is expected to serve as PCHS’s home for the next three to nine months while the original campus is rebuilt.
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