KCM Group Begins Construction on Urban Discovery Academy in San Diego

KCM Group, a full-service construction management and consulting firm, announced today that construction is underway on the Urban Discovery Academy. The K-8 public charter school will be permanently located at Silo-Makers Quarter in the heart of San Diego’s East Village neighborhood.

"Urban Discovery Academy is fortunate to reach an important milestone in the construction process,” said MaeLin Levine, Urban Discovery Academy Board President. “This project has faced some unique challenges, and KCM Group’s expertise has been crucial to getting us to the school’s construction phase."

For the past six years, Urban Discovery Academy (UDA) has been operating out of rented space on Sixth Avenue, across from Balboa Park. KCM Group was selected to oversee the relocation and construction of the project. The new UDA will consist of a school facility with outdoor parking and playground areas to be constructed on 30,000-square-feet of property along the western side of 14^th Street (between E Street and F Street). The project will continue nearly a century of educational use of the site by incorporating and renovating an historic two-story, 20,000-square-foot College District building and integrating it with a new two-story, 16,000-square-foot learning space.

“Educational facilities are important assets for Downtown and East Village,” said Councilman Todd Gloria. “Schools like the Urban Discovery Academy will help attract families to these neighborhoods, which contributes to the creation of vibrant and diverse communities.”

Urban Discovery Academy, designed by AVRP Studios Architectural, is part of the charter school movement, which aims to bring innovative educational choices to local residents. Chartered through the San Diego Unified School District, UDA is the product of passionate parents and community leaders who believe a school embedded in the City’s urban core will draw creatively on the strength of the neighborhood’s financial, civic and creative arts institutions.

“We are very proud to be partnered with such a great educational institution and to guide the construction process of this revolutionary new school,” said Gordon Kovtun, founder and principal of KCM Group. “Urban Discovery Academy will be an invaluable new element for the East Village’s residential and commercial evolution.”

The project is currently scheduled to be completed by July 2015.