School starts construction of Falcon Nest, an outdoor hangout space near the student center

Photo by Aiden Ye

While empty now, the Falcon Nest is expected to be a casual work space for students before the end of this school year.

Last semester, maintenance workers tore down the locker banks to the immediate left and right of the student center, clearing the way for long-desired add-ons to the center, assistant principal Matt Torrens said. 

The left locker bank will be turned into a social corner called the Falcon Nest, an extension of the quad intended to serve as a social hub as well as a music storage area. The right locker block will be turned into storage space for drama equipment now stored in the back part of the library.

Photo by Aiden Ye

The current drama storage at the back of the library.

Torrens said construction is likely to be done by the end of the school year.

The Falcon Nest that Torrens envisions will be a space where students can come and go freely, lounge on bean bags or use other comfortable, outdoor furniture to do work and hang out.

Funds for the project will come from the Class of 2020, which couldn’t go to prom because of the pandemic but had already raised close to $12,500. They decided to donate that money back to the school. 

When discussing how to spend the money, ideas like adding solar panels to the parking lot were considered but ultimately rejected for being too expensive — the solar panel idea cost hundreds of thousands to implement. Additional funding for the Nest has come from Bombay in the Bay ($8,900) and the PTSO ($5,000). 

Junior Annaliese Shab likes the Falcon Nest idea because it provides another place to hang out for many students as the student center is often crowded.

As of Jan. 25, the construction team has cleared out all of the lockers, flattened the cement and power washed the floor. Future steps include adding epoxy to the floors, painting the walls and installing a set of power outlets so students can recharge their devices while working there, Torrens said.

Photo by Aiden Ye

The location for the planned Falcon Nest.

“I think it’s really cool to see the school caring about the environment and peoples’ health,” said Sina Mahtaj Kharassani, a freshman class officer. “It’s great to see another student center-type place on campus.”

The Falcon Nest will also feature clay tiles hand-painted by the Class of ‘20 during their reunion in 2021. The class hopes that their year “2020” will be emblazoned on a wall of the Falcon Nest, Torrens said. The different designs and artworks featured on each clay tile will serve as a colorful reminder of the diverse class which graduated in such a tumultuous time.

Due to regulatory issues that accompany creating new indoor rooms, the Falcon Nest will not feature any doors, instead being an open-air sort of pavilion. The addition of doors would require indoor status and more administrative oversight and costs for construction approval.

An initial proposal to move the air hockey table from the student center to the Falcon Nest was rejected — there would be too much noise. Instead, a ping pong table may be added, according to Torrens. Furthermore, the area is planned to contain heavy outdoor furniture and beanbags. Since the Falcon Nest has a roof, there are no concerns over weather erosion. However, a gutter in the ceiling may prove a challenge during construction and will most likely be redirected, Torrens said.

Photo by Aiden Ye

The gutter in the Falcon Nest.

“When you do a project at a school, you have to be careful,” he said. “For example, if you’re putting the doors in, you have to go through a regulatory agency and it increases the cost, so to prevent that, we’re keeping it as simple as possible.”

According to Torrens, if the Falcon Nest project is successful, the school may consider constructing another nest in the place of other current locker areas.

“If you look at East Side or San Jose Unified, most schools have gotten rid of all their lockers,” he said. “There’s only about seven locks on all of these lockers, so we feel that we should be repurposing them.”

Students interviewed by The Falcon said they are generally in favor of the transformation and look forward to its completion.

“I think not that many people use lockers anymore so it’s great that we have a place to hang out,” sophomore Nirvan Shah said. “I do hope to use it sometime in the future.”