Going back more than two decades, the Rothenberg Building on Westridge’s Upper School campus has boasted an unfortunate smell, garnering complaints from students, faculty, and visitors alike. Notable effects of the smell include the relocation of the English office not once but twice in 2023 and classrooms forced to install air fresheners and leave doors and windows open. 

Some students claim the smell reached its worst point in their time at the school before this year’s winter break. Spyglass contributor Carolina H. ’25 said, “The building before winter break smelled absolutely vile. In comparison to other years, it was just horrible. I guess the smell has faded out a little, but it’s still reminiscent; it’s still there.”

But for the first time, the Westridge administration is optimistic about a more permanent solution to eliminating the smell. Director of Upper School Mr. Gary Baldwin said, “For equally as long as [the smell has been around], the school has been trying to track it down and eliminate it, obviously with mixed success. We are for the first time genuinely hopeful that by the end of the summer, that problem is going to be eliminated.”

Mr. Baldwin  praised Director of Facilities Irina Kotsinian, who has played a strong role in attempting to mitigate the smell. She explained the root of the smell, attributing it to damaged pipes. “[The pipes] leak, tiny amounts of air and anything that sits in the pipes just dissolves into the air, causing an unpleasant smell,” said Ms. Kotsinian. 

A major difficulty in fixing the smell is finding time when students and teachers will not be impacted by construction, making consistent progress a challenge. During Spring Break though, Ms. Kotsinian hired a team of professional contractors and plumbers to address the issue. She praised the contractors for their work in a tight time period, saying, “With so much limited time during…Spring Break, when we have only a few days, our contractors have accomplished a lot by demolishing and replacing partially on that side of the building.” 

Students, like Carolina, have noticed a difference in the smell. Mandy S. ’26 said the Commons, and the overall building have smelled better since Spring Break. “The smell in the Commons I’ve noticed has always been really bad. But as of late, I noticed the smell increasingly getting better.”

In total, Rothenberg Building has eight in-use classrooms—three in the basement, five on the top floor, with the Commons and community room in between. While students may only have a few classes there, some teachers spend all of their time teaching in the building’s classrooms. Dr. Hilary Malspeis, Upper School Latin Teacher, said that she has been at Westridge as long as the smell has. Her classroom, above the Commons, used to smell like food, but as of late, smells like sewage. She recognizes the recent improvement though. “In the last month or so, it’s been getting better. We’ve been smelling more food smells,” said Dr. Malspeis. 

As of right now, Ms. Kotsinian is planning on taking advantage of the summer break to continue working on the Rothenberg Building. “Anytime that there’s no students on campus, we’ll take the chance to work on construction projects,” said Ms. Kotsinian. “We’re definitely planning to continue this work during the summer.” She said their work will affect “the entire basement area of some of the bathroom ventilation.”

Throughout this entire process, the Westridge facilities team is committed to a methodical approach. When asked if she was hopeful that they could eradicate the smell, Ms. Kotsinian said, “I don’t think the complete victory in this case can be claimed until we finish the entire project,” which she again stresses is difficult because of time constraints. She continued, “Of course, we would like to see, upon completion, very positive results without any odor in the building. And that’s our goal.”

While the goal is an odor-free building in the near future, Ms. Kotsinian emphasized having realistic standards. “We want to be very realistic in understanding that these issues can be very complex, and they do include more than one component. It’s not just plumbing.”