The new campus for San Diego's Francis Parker School takes advantage of the warm climate with outdoor quads, open-air circulation, and lots of operable windows-so when the students do have to be indoors, they can still have access to natural light and breezes.
The two-story upper school classroom buildings have structures of concrete colored with locally sourced aggregates. Cantilevered sunshades protect the second floor walkways from periodic rainfall.
Site Plan
The classrooms in the science center feature sliding glass walls that open the rooms to the outdoors. The school's casual teaching style means that the views are not seen as a distraction to learning.
While most of the canopies on campus incorporate metal panels, the canopy at the entry to the science center is made from recycled crushed glass encased in stainless steel mesh and a metal frame. The resulting planks are then placed on the same steel canopy system that supports the other sunshades.
Wall Section at Exterior Circulation Balcony
The library building is centrally located between the upper school and middle school quads. The building uses a material palette similar to that of the classroom buildings, but its peaked wooden roof differentiates it from other buildings on campus.
The library has a glazed double-height lobby that allows daylight to penetrate deep into the interior. As in the classroom buildings, students can find a quiet place to do their work while still maintaining a visual connection with the outdoors.
The commons is another indoor/outdoor space on campus. This single-story building has a flexible interior that can be used for meetings, special events, and other activities when the entire upper school student body needs to gather.
The sustainably grown wood of the interior and the exterior siding adds to the green cachet, but the client decided not to pursue FSC certification-which demands that a chain of custody be established for the wood on its journey from tree to construction site-because of the expense.
