Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Updating McKinley Elementary’s library with designer Heather Vitti Pruett

Book space as happy place

Heather’s library after kid directed redesign.
Heather’s library after kid directed redesign.

“McKinley Elementary’s library hadn’t been updated since 1970,” says interior designer Heather Vitti Pruett. “Fifty years!” Then, back in 2018, Pruett suddenly found herself in a position to do something about that, after she enrolled her daughter Riadon at the South Park school. “I decided that I wanted to get involved in the PTA, or PTC — Parent Teachers’ Club — and it just so happened that at my first PTC meeting, the principal announced the Beautification Committee was going to be doing a library remodel. I thought, ‘This is great. It’s right up my alley.’ So I went and talked to Deb [Ganderton, the then-principal of McKinley], and basically volunteered to take over the project.”

Heather Vitti Pruett - redesigned library for $16K, a quarter of projected cost.

And she did. Except, if you listen to her, it seems the school’s kids were the ones who really took over. “First, I sat in the library and watched. I watched the kids come in, sit down. They couldn’t stay in one place, because the layout was just boring. There was no real interest. I talked with the teachers, I did questionnaires, I did interviews. I also wanted to get the kids’ perspective. So Deb sent out something to the other teachers, and soon kids aged 8-11 formed a student committee and volunteered! I said, ‘Let’s get concept images.’ Well, these kids found about 150 [library] images. I took them and separated them into categories of library design: architectural details, seating, storage/organization, book cases. The kids went around to each and every class, took all of these images to all of the classrooms, and we did what was called The School Votes. Every student, every teacher got to vote, down to kindergarten: ‘Which image do you like the best?’ They counted up the votes; I took the top three of each category, and used that in the implementation of the design.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Cut for a two-year covid hiatus, and arrive at last year, when, with a new student library committee in place, Pruett took a second run at the project. “I came up with a PowerPoint presentation, where I talked about the principles of design, and it was really cool to see the kids using that. Everything that you see in there was selected by the kids: the carpet, the paint, the furniture. I treated them the same I would any other client. I brought them three different options of, for instance, flooring: purple, green, gray. The one that got installed was the one that they picked. From there, we went into teams. And the kids [took] the paint and the fabric, and they were holding them up against each other.”

It was all hands to the pump. She even painted the student-chosen octagonal circulation desk herself. Pruett says that her “we can do this” approach also drastically cut costs. Example: she actively wheeled and dealed with suppliers — Interface Carpet Company donated the carpet, Sherwin Williams gave them paint at half off — shamelessly sought and used parent volunteerism, and donated much of her own labor, working weekends for months. Result? “The projected budget was $200,000. We did it for $60,000.”

But did the effort make a difference? “I went back, on a library day, to see the kids in action. And they were really happy. They wanted to grab books, they wanted to sit at the cool furniture. And so they should. These kids helped design this library.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A history of the house on the hill at Ivanhoe Ranch

From Apolinaria Lorenzana to Jane Goodall
Next Article

Reader writer fends off attacks on Encinitas cliff story

Says each letter writer takes on only part of the article
Heather’s library after kid directed redesign.
Heather’s library after kid directed redesign.

“McKinley Elementary’s library hadn’t been updated since 1970,” says interior designer Heather Vitti Pruett. “Fifty years!” Then, back in 2018, Pruett suddenly found herself in a position to do something about that, after she enrolled her daughter Riadon at the South Park school. “I decided that I wanted to get involved in the PTA, or PTC — Parent Teachers’ Club — and it just so happened that at my first PTC meeting, the principal announced the Beautification Committee was going to be doing a library remodel. I thought, ‘This is great. It’s right up my alley.’ So I went and talked to Deb [Ganderton, the then-principal of McKinley], and basically volunteered to take over the project.”

Heather Vitti Pruett - redesigned library for $16K, a quarter of projected cost.

And she did. Except, if you listen to her, it seems the school’s kids were the ones who really took over. “First, I sat in the library and watched. I watched the kids come in, sit down. They couldn’t stay in one place, because the layout was just boring. There was no real interest. I talked with the teachers, I did questionnaires, I did interviews. I also wanted to get the kids’ perspective. So Deb sent out something to the other teachers, and soon kids aged 8-11 formed a student committee and volunteered! I said, ‘Let’s get concept images.’ Well, these kids found about 150 [library] images. I took them and separated them into categories of library design: architectural details, seating, storage/organization, book cases. The kids went around to each and every class, took all of these images to all of the classrooms, and we did what was called The School Votes. Every student, every teacher got to vote, down to kindergarten: ‘Which image do you like the best?’ They counted up the votes; I took the top three of each category, and used that in the implementation of the design.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Cut for a two-year covid hiatus, and arrive at last year, when, with a new student library committee in place, Pruett took a second run at the project. “I came up with a PowerPoint presentation, where I talked about the principles of design, and it was really cool to see the kids using that. Everything that you see in there was selected by the kids: the carpet, the paint, the furniture. I treated them the same I would any other client. I brought them three different options of, for instance, flooring: purple, green, gray. The one that got installed was the one that they picked. From there, we went into teams. And the kids [took] the paint and the fabric, and they were holding them up against each other.”

It was all hands to the pump. She even painted the student-chosen octagonal circulation desk herself. Pruett says that her “we can do this” approach also drastically cut costs. Example: she actively wheeled and dealed with suppliers — Interface Carpet Company donated the carpet, Sherwin Williams gave them paint at half off — shamelessly sought and used parent volunteerism, and donated much of her own labor, working weekends for months. Result? “The projected budget was $200,000. We did it for $60,000.”

But did the effort make a difference? “I went back, on a library day, to see the kids in action. And they were really happy. They wanted to grab books, they wanted to sit at the cool furniture. And so they should. These kids helped design this library.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

94th Aero Squadron – French farmhouse still works

Try the antinoise –tomatoes with olive oil dressing plus capers, garlic, toasted coriander seeds, basil, spring onions, salted anchovies
Next Article

Live Five: Andrew Peña, Frankie J, Beat Farmers, Jesse LaMonaca, Puddles Pity Party

Latin, roots rock, and pity parties in Mission Beach, Little Italy, El Cajon
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader