There’s no question about it: The Cove is the neglected child of Southwest’s 2016 construction project. Along with the Garages, lunchroom, commons area, flex spaces, main office, and library, it formed the core of the architecture firm ATSR’s project goal of “prioritizing classroom count and enrollment capacity” in the face of increased enrollment. Today, however, it exudes an aura of desolation.
The Cove is located just outside of the commons, by the CCC and counselors’ offices. When The Cove was created, Southwest’s goal was to provide a dynamic environment that could serve as a study space or anything else required of it. For two years after it was built, faculty staffed The Cove and scheduled events there. However, the Southwest student schedule, unlike a modular or block schedule, wasn’t flexible enough to provide structured study time. Additionally, food is prohibited, which further limits usage of The Cove. Especially with the new rule requiring students with a 1st or 6th hour release period to leave the school, The Cove’s purpose is waning. Since The Cove was built, there have been six principals overseeing the school. Perhaps the non-traditional space’s core idea got lost between principals.
Our current principal, Dr. Edward Bennett, thinks of The Cove as a lost privilege: “They’ve tried different things over the years, nothing’s been successful. It’s hard to have a space open during the day, because kids will be there when they should be in class. That being said, it’s nice to have an open meeting space so people can congregate and do things in. So, I don’t really know the best use for it.”
Renewal of The Cove’s usefulness would create a problem: furniture. Or rather, lack of it. When I asked Dr. Bennett about the furnishing situation, he said: “There was no class ever assigned there, so kids would sit on [the furniture], they would lie underneath it, they would break it, not necessarily intentionally, just because they were there when [they shouldn’t have been]. We need to have kids in class, and that’s why you want to make it less inviting.”
Here’s what some Lakers think about The Cove:
- Jake Milner (‘25): “I feel like it’s mostly useless. It was a good concept, but then they banned everyone from doing basically anything in it at all times during the school day, so it’s mostly used for afterschool activities, most of which could be done elsewhere. There’s no good use for it anymore.”
- Charlie Quick (‘25): “The Cove is rather useless. At best, I’ve seen it used by Fashion Club or Dance, or such of the like, but as a common space and a community meeting place, it’s really bad. They have three decaying tables and a few uncomfortable chairs. And they ask us to enjoy it, appreciate it, but don’t let us use it?”
- Henri Khasky (‘25): “It’s pretty hard to utilize outside of after school.”
Can a “student study area” or an “open meeting space” like The Cove exist with hostile architecture? How can the school balance the provision of a study space and the ejection of skippers? It seems that Southwest, lacking an answer, has given up entirely. Perhaps it’s due for a reimagining.
