August 19, 2004

Mosaic on the New Facility at Bird Rock Elementary Reflects a Vibrant and Involved Community
Kids Leave Their Mark on School's New Library

By Will Carless
LA JOLLA LIGHT

Each year, the graduating class of Bird Rock Elementary School leaves its mark on the school campus in some way. In 2004, the fifth-graders were given the task of further beautifying the school's new library.

Using shells, stones and hand-decorated mosaic tiles, Bird Rock's graduates created a tiled wave design on the side of the newly finished building, leaving their mark with an enterprising and unique piece of art.

"We decided that we would do three different layers. ... The way that the library was stuccoed, it had a curve kind of a wave-like curve," said Betsy Schulz, the artist who helped the children complete the decoration.

"The top layer was blue to represent the ocean… the middle layer was the sand it was kind of a whitish, off-white color, representing the sand, and the bottom layer was a brownish color to represent the rocks and the stone."

The library building was completed in early 2004 and was designed by self-described social architects Zagrodnik and Thomas. The firm consulted a number of times with a task force for the school comprised of parents and teachers.

The partners approached the group with a number of ideas for the building, which posed a variety of interesting design challenges. One such factor was the topographical layout of the site, which left the library backing onto a small hill.

"The location was chosen because we wanted to use the hill, and to push the building up against the hill," said architect partner Scott Thomas. "We wanted to minimise the use of the playground space, that drove the design."

Hidden amongst the stones, shells and color of the library's new mosaic are a number of hand-pressed tiles that were produced by the graduating class. The children actually pressed messages into the tiles. These tiles incorporate an almost hidden message for future students at the library.
"It's meant to be something that you discover," said Schulz, "not something that jumps right out at you."

The tiles contain a number of quotes from different authors in addition to single words that were chosen by the children themselves. Once the titles were pressed by the children, Schulz took them back to her studio for firing and glazing. After the titles were fired and glazed, she attached them to a mesh. Then the mess was cut into sections and the students applied them to the wall using thinset. The parents of the students helped grout and clean the final mosaic.

Everyone gained a sense of ownership by their participation. They not only learned the mosaic process but they also learned a little about a few well-known authors and left their mark in the history of the school.

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Photo by Betsy Schulz
Students have hidden words and famous author's quotations in the tile design on the library facade