Geffen Academy at UCLA

From the June 2019 Issue of ARCHITECT:

A secondary school on a college campus uses indoor and outdoor space to form a smart, informal learning environment.

Some of the newest students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus haven’t taken their SATs—they are the middle and high schoolers at the new Geffen Academy at UCLA. The university decided to start a secondary school for students from the greater Los Angeles area—including those of UCLA faculty—back in 2015. It selected a campus building designed by Culver City, Calif.–based Ehrlich Architects (now Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects) as a facility to temporarily house various departments during renovations, and hired Santa Monica, Calif.–based Koning Eizenberg Architecture (KEA) to transform it into Geffen Academy. The school opened in 2017, and moved into its new facility last fall.

KEA principal Julie Eizenberg, FAIA, says that the client was not interested in a traditional school: “They told us that they expected a third of their students to not be in class at any given time, that they wanted to begin to break down the barrier between faculty and students, and that they believed in wellness programs,” especially the importance of daylight.

To address this brief, KEA reoriented the entry from one of the short sides of the building to the long side to create a better area for drop-off, and to reclaim some of the parking lot surrounding the building to create an outdoor patio for students. Existing roll-up garage doors now open ground-floor studios for dance, art, and maker space to light and air, and connect the patio to a cafeteria. Inside, KEA cut a stair into the floor plates to connect the three levels and admit daylight via a skylight above. Glass interior partitions allow light to penetrate deep into the floor plates.

An important design concept was “the idea of empowerment,” Eizenberg says. “To make the students feel empowered, you need to give them choice.” A central, open library offers a variety of study and collaborative environments for students and teachers alike to choose how and where they want to work. The library starts on the ground floor with a space known as the living room, and occupies the center of floors two and three, where it is surrounded by classrooms. While the sequence of spaces is called a library—and does indeed hold books—the school has taken to it just as the architects intended. “We used indirect lighting on Unistrut that the students can also use for display,” says project manager Mandi Roberts, Assoc. AIA. The last time she visited, “the living room was a theater.”

“To make teachers and students comfortable, you need a fairly sophisticated environment,” Eizenberg says—high-tech offices were a source of inspiration. But the school was “keen that the kids create the narrative. It’s got to be a place where you can make a mess.”

Project Credits
Project: Geffen Academy at UCLA, Los Angeles
Client: UCLA Capital Programs
Architect/Interior Designer: Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Santa Monica, Calif. . Julie Eizenberg, FAIA (principal-in-charge); Mandi Roberts, Assoc. AIA (project manager/designer); Greg Cheng, AIA (project architect); Sam Ludwig, Nathan Bishop, Troy Fosler, AIA, Julian Menne (project team)
General Contractor: BNBuilders
Civil Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architect: Pamela Burton & Co.
Structural Engineer: John Labib + Associates
Mechanical/Plumbing Engineer: Southland Industries
Electrical Engineer: Helix Electric
Lighting Designer/Sustainability: BuroHappold Engineering
Signage: Newsom Gonzalez
Audio/Video: Vantage Technology Consulting Group
Code Consultant: TK1SC
Acoustics: Veneklasen Associates
Cost Estimating: C.P. O’Halloran Associates
Laboratory Planner: Strategic Facilities Planning
Specifications: AWC
FFE Specifications: Dotrio
Hardware: Finish Hardware Technology
Food Service: Laschober + Sovich
Size: 75,000 square feet
Cost: Withheld