Kearny High School students unveiled proposals Monday to turn San Diego's old Central Library into a comprehensive center for military veterans.
The students at Kearny's Stanley E. Foster School of Engineering, Innovation and Design showed three sets of plans to Mayor Kevin Faulconer, City Council President Sherri Lightner, and Councilmen Chris Cate and Scott Sherman.
"You can see from some of the designs, (the students) jumped in with an astounding level of energy, and an astounding level of talent and commitment to San Diego," Faulconer said. "That's what I'm very excited to see."
The proposals included using the top floor of the three-story building, which was closed in 2013, to house homeless veterans.
Ideas for other parts of the building, on E Street between the Gaslamp Quarter and East Village, include a child care center, health services, therapy rooms for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a jobs support center, a center for women veterans and showers.
Veterans spoke to students throughout the design process about their needs, according to school officials.
Civic San Diego, which assists the city on development, has issued a request for proposals to make use of the structure.
Lightner said responding organizations will face constraints of various types, but the students were able to present "unfettered" ideas. Their plans could be incorporated into an actual future project, she said.
According to Lightner, a recent assessment of city facilities determined that an extensive and expensive renovation will be needed to make the building usable again, including plumbing and electrical work, access for the disabled and a seismic retrofit.
The student proposals were created under a new program called "Bridges to Education," a partnership between the city and San Diego Unified School District that provides students with real-world experience, along with feedback from professionals.
