Canoga Park Tutors Come To You

Ralph Bowerman and Charles Hobson are not household names in the United States—but for the millions of people who live in Los Angeles County, their mid-century building designs are as familiar as the bright sunshine and palm trees that dot the beaches and cities of this area in California. One such building, well-known and well-used, is located in Canoga Park, which is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley with over 60,000 residents. Bowerman and Hobson designed a library for the growing city in the 1959 to accommodate the steady rise in residents that flocked to southern California in the post-war era. Since that time, the building has been converted to a branch of the Child Development Institute of California as an Early Learning Center, but remains an iconic landmark in the middle of Canoga Park.

The CDI Learning Center is distinctive for its zig-zag roofline, with clerestory windows that let in copious amounts of natural light. Clerestories are large, flat-paneled windows with little ornamentation. These windows allow the roofline to take center stage, which has deep eaves and hangs low, creating shade and visual interest at the same time for visitors to the Learning Center. The walls are simple brick as well, which further emphasizes that the roofline is the main visual standout for the building. This building was the first mid-century modern library to be listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Officially, the CDI of California took over the building in 2007, adapting it to meet the needs of local children. This landmark now serves over 1,000 children per year, inviting residents to come explore on discovery days, reading circles, puppet shows, and other activities that make this a hub of communal engagement. The staff who work at the Learning also provide free developmental screening and referrals to resources for healthcare, education, and other services. Local residents who used the library as children now visit the new facility with families of their own. The adaptability of the building, and the innovation used to reimagine it as a space for a different kind of learning, has earned it a Conservancy Preservation Award in 2014.

Adapting to circumstances is crucial in academic achievement and success. Tutors in Canoga Park recognize this valuable skill, and work with their clients to not only help them turn grades around, but also learn to adapt to new learning environments and perhaps more difficult subject than they are used to. Thinking about old ideas in new ways is an exciting part of the learning process—just as it was an exciting part of rehabilitating the old library—and tutors are able to impart this enthusiasm and passion for learning onto the students they work with on a daily basis.