Structures come and go, outliving their usefulness and eventually emptying out their occupants and activities that once made them alive and special. This is a part of life, and an unavoidable one at that. But it is what happens to those structures afterward that can turn a rotting corpse of concrete and drywall into something special yet again…a rebirth.
That is just the case an old school in Scottsdale, whose new owners are showing the potential beauty in reimagination.
The Tonalea Elementary School had a rich history dating back to 1958. Established during a period of rapid post-World War II growth in the area and named after the Navajo word for “Red Lake”, it was among several schools opened to accommodate the increasing population. In 2014, the Scottsdale Unified School District consolidated Tonalea Elementary with a nearby middle school to form Tonalea K-8 School.
Since then it has been empty, simply sitting there waiting for nature to retake it. But in a city like Scottsdale, that will never be the case for too long…and its new purpose has been set into motion. Where it once served the young pioneers of Scottsdale’s modernity, it will now again serve our youth in a new and modern way.
According to the Scottsdale Unified School District, it will be turned into “a multi-purpose recreational, athletic and community project.” The site proposal shows eight sand volleyball courts along with a basketball court and soccer field. Additionally, the parking lot along Oak Street will be re-surfaced and re-striped. So not only will local kids get a number of different recreational options, but since a previously used parcel is being used, but it will come at a dramatically less expensive cost than something that was built from scratch.
Too often in this world if we want something new we strip something else bare and rebuild from scratch. Yes, it allows for more control and more options, but it also strips away history bit by bit. In a place like Arizona where modernity is routinely embraced over history, where precious few pieces of our past remain, we need to more often consider what we can reimagine instead of what we can turn into a blank slate. This development is a fantastic step in the right direction.