Before the implementation of Measure O, which covers the remodeling the band rooms, the 500 and 400 buildings, the Walnut Valley Unified School District has already initiated other projects across the Diamond Bar High School campus.

The district is funding the construction projects for the USB room, gym and both the 200 and 300 buildings, due to much needed renovation on campus.

“I was really excited to learn that we would finally be updating the USB room.  It’s been in talks for a long time, since before I was the Activities Director,” Janna Van Horn said via email.

The initial planning was left to operations manager Mike Bromberg and Van Horn.

However, seniors Hailey Shi and Derek Lai were also given the opportunity to help plan out the new room because both students nursed an interest in design.

“I’m really grateful for this opportunity because it’s something I would have never dreamed of to be able to do at a school,” Shi said. “I’m really happy that by coincidence that we got to do this.”

Shi came up with the initial design of the room.

Lai then used 3D design softwares, Autodesk Revit and Autocad, to bring Shi’s idea of the room closer to a reality.

Together with Van Horn, Lai and Shi took into consideration what USB would need, such as a more efficient storage system and more indoor space for poster painting.

They also plan on having a partition installed to make Van Horn’s office more easily accessible to students, since currently the office can only be entered by crossing through the USB room.

The furniture for the room has yet to be decided on.

Meanwhie, USB members are organizing what they want to keep in the storage room and tossing out the rest.

The new USB room has already been re-floored and construction is scheduled to be completed between November and December.

“For remodeling of the band room and science buildings, I’m pretty sure no student gets to design it since it’s left to the architects,” Lai said. “So the fact that me and Hailey get to plan the room is pretty exciting, and it’s also for future generations.”

The reflooring of the gym is also scheduled to be completed by the end of September.

Decorative stone on the exterior walls and new benches were installed to improve the look of the front of the gym.

Additional improvements to the 200 and 300 buildings include redoing the ceiling tiles, repainting the purple trim of the windows.

The doors are also to be painted black and the lights will be replaced as well.

The project encompasses the repainting of the whole school next summer to create a uniform look similar to that of the math buildings.