Pacific Oaks College enjoys comeback

The $6-million sale of two historic Craftsman homes next to the Gamble House signals the rebound of a Pasadena private college once threatened with closure, and the birth of a school for children with autism.

Officials at Pacific Oaks College, based at 5 and 6 Westmoreland Place since 1977, said parting with the properties was the final step in a three-year effort to lift the institution out of a financial freefall.

The Institute for the Redesign of Learning, a South Pasadena school known as the Almansor Center that specializes in students with special needs, bought the homes on June 15. After renovations, the space will reopen as a K-12 school for autistic children called Westmoreland Academy, said Almansor founder Nancy Lavelle.

“It’s an ideal campus — quiet, serene, self-contained,” said Lavelle, who plans to preserve historic exteriors while equipping rooms for occupational therapy and classes in art, science, computers and independent living skills.

The buildings were no longer ideal for Pacific Oaks because of size limitations and maintenance costs, said college President Ezat Parnia.

“There was a sentimental connection to those buildings, but no way could we expand from there,” Parnia said.

Rose Bowl and Pasadena Central Library architect Myron Hunt teamed with Elmer Grey, designer of the Pasadena Playhouse, to design 6 Westmoreland Place in 1909, said Pasadena architectural historian Ann Scheid.

Built in 1913 for heirs of the Pillsbury flour fortune, 5 Westmoreland Place was designed by architects George Edwin Bergstrom, Cyril Bennett and Fitch Haskell, who also created the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Having sold the buildings, Pacific Oaks now leases two buildings on North Fair Oaks Avenue and Eureka Street, just above the Foothill (210) Freeway.

A thriving Pacific Oaks seemed like a long shot just a few years ago.

In 2009, the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges threatened to pull the college’s accreditation amid declining enrollment and deficits prompted by the 2007 closure of statewide satellite locations.

Some Pacific Oaks officials had suggested closing the college to save the affiliated Pacific Oaks Children’s School on West California Boulevard, a Quaker-founded preschool that pioneered collaborative learning.

Instead of shutting down, board members decided on a merger with TCS Education System, a nonprofit spinoff of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology that pools the resources of small vocational colleges to reduce operational costs.

TCS took over human resources, accounting, information technology and other management duties for Pacific Oaks in mid-2010. Academic decisions are still made by an independent Pacific Oaks board, said Parnia, who was hired in January.

“Pacific Oaks was fairly typical of a crisis that’s been brewing for small, independent colleges for years,” said TCS founder Michael Horowitz, explaining that increasing operational costs put smaller schools at risk of collapse when enrollment revenue fluctuates.

Pacific Oaks enrollment peaked at about 1,200 students in 2007. Parnia said the college currently has 719 master’s- and bachelor’s-degree students, most of them working adults, with 230 more expected to enroll in the fall.

With its financial house in order, Horowitz and Parnia say Pacific Oaks is poised to slowly expand its operations through satellite classrooms and courses that blend online and classroom learning. Unlike previous expansion efforts, Parnia said the college will remain focused on its operations in Pasadena and recently formed a program to recruit Pasadena City College graduates.

“Pacific Oaks is very grounded in Pasadena,” Parnia said. “Many other college graduates go off to wherever the jobs are, but most of our students go back into the local community with degrees in social service and education.”