![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7H4QA4gFebthB8m8qF8H_RG8irkQaCf8fkqW5e4HT05EG3vVVyW4gxdueg5Nii8eX-ZW13KR2jVQ6sGLBpMnK7aIMH8SR6e06VkfkeQi1DUniDEMEVWo0LjV1trunGW6e_4A/s200/IMG_0067.JPG)
To the Party in the Hall last night, a fund raiser and a preview of the renovations/new wing of City Honors.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4xbWICa5epmVvkYqVIJrMp5nxfq9gy34Rx4lQVg2lYpVzd2LzIqlMN72LPDmnJxhUsFpIMhbPZuYwlZRMR72s6YoelyyGZUpY0nADZssSklrOB7TTYw0H8kveYd8ek8sJ9v-O/s200/IMG_0070.JPG)
Just driving by the site for the past two years was enough to see that this was going to be an ambitious project, but I had no way of knowing just how grand the scope of it really was until we saw what was going on inside.
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The pool and the gym are exciting, of course, and there are all the usual high tech bells and whistles: projection screens and whiteboards and the like.
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They've opened up a lot of space, but what I liked best was that they used the old wood and the old fixtures, incorporating them into the renovation.
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There's a sense in which this monument seems excessive-- the school is a palace in the midst of a poor neighborhood in a poor city.
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On the other hand, the reason people give for moving out of the city is that the schools are better in the burbs. Whether that's true or not-- City Honors does have a national reputation, after all-- it is certainly true that the physical plant, attractive as it was, was also outmoded and worn.
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This isn't the only school renovation in the city, but it is far and away the most elaborate. It is, I think, the most elaborate high school I've ever seen.
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