Project Description
PROVIDED BY THE ARCHITECTS:
The existing school sits on a 5.5 acre site south of the 10 freeway and bordered by Virginia Avenue and Kansas Avenue in Santa Monica. The project consists of a new 27 classroom kindergarten through fifth grade facility for a total of 470 students. Facilities include 35,000 sf of classrooms and 22,000 sf of administration, library, and cafetorium. The school is organized around a series of small and large courtyards that can be used as teaching spaces, for community gatherings school performances, and snack time. The academic courtyard is the largest of these open spaces and is flanked by two levels of classrooms connected by a series of bridges and landscaped platforms. The new school acts as a global citizen to enhance and restore the ecology and the natural environment of the region. Through the sensitive design, we have reclaimed over 5 acres formerly completely covered with pavement and buildings. The classroom buildings are now of a higher density and the site is planted with more fields, gardens, courtyards, and green roofs. Large glazing systems on a minimum of two surfaces permit natural daylight to offset artificial lighting and reduce internal electrical loads. Air from the courtyard will be pulled through the classrooms via operable windows and discharged to the outside as it heats up and moves through solar chimneys that link both levels of the two story building. During the day classrooms are naturally ventilated for cross breeze through spaces to reduce the operating hours of mechanical systems. At night the classrooms are cooled by flushing warm interior air through the flues with cool exterior air.