Building
The location of the school building was decided upon its proximity to the Franklin Institute, as well as being in the heart of Downtown Philadelphia. The building itself was formerly an office building (for the Human Resources department of the School District of Philadelphia), which was completely renovated for SLA. In total, the building is five stories tall (though the school only uses the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th floors), contains three elevators (reserved for teachers and disabled students only), and three main stairwells, with one that gives access to the 1st-3rd floors, and the other two for the 1st–5th floors. One interesting feature to the building, dubbed the "Pool" by the students, is a large cutout structure, (with the interior walls painted blue that gives it its name), located on the second floor which looks into the 1st floor café.
This space was originally to be a grand staircase that leads visitors straight from the front door to the office, however, engineering conflicts did not allow for this. Also, two ballrooms, (located in the middle of the 2nd and 3rd floors) were supposed to be staircases that were connected as well, though the same conflicts denied those plans.
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—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)