This charter high school houses 500 students in Silver Lake, a multi-cultural community adjacent to downtown Los Angeles. It is the third project designed by kdA for the Pueblo Nuevo Development, a Los Angeles non-profit community investment organization founded by Dr. Philip Lance in 1993; in 2000 and 2003 kdA completed an elementary and a middle school on a single block campus in MacArthur Park.

It was critical to recognize the high school as a part of the entire charter school program, yet ultimately distinct from the lower school buildings. A social and institutional transformation, stewardship of the building and campus was emphasized for the students from the outset through elements like well-lit classrooms, spaces for informal exchange, and indoor and outdoor transparency.

The school is intended, because of its physical and social context, to function as a protected oasis while simultaneously allowing enough transparency to reflect the aspirations and achievements of the program to the surrounding community.

Site & Urban Context

In 2004, the development corporation acquired this lengthy site—bounded by busy streets and in the shadow of the Hollywood Freeway—and the design process began immediately in an effort to meet budget and schedule goals. Due to the intense urban condition it was critical to recover pieces of city space and transform them into educational haven, but without isolating the school from the neighborhood.

In the process of developing a form for the building and keeping within the budget, kdA created a pair of two-story structures that meet at the prow of the site. A long, winding classroom building buffers the social spaces from Silverlake Boulevard, and a shorter building containing all the administrative offices and media rooms anchors the primary pedestrian entrance.

Program & Social Context

The school program totals 30,000SF, comprising 18 classrooms (including 2 art rooms, 4 science rooms, 1 project room), a library, administration areas and an 18,000SF outdoor sports deck/assembly area over on-grade parking.

By single-loading the main classroom building two important social and sustainable functions were accomplished with simple solutions: direct visual connections are established between the classrooms and the inner courtyard, and natural light flows into each classroom from both the windows on the street side and courtyard side.  This courtyard becomes the hub of the school; large pivot doors from the art rooms open directly onto the yard for large-scale art projects, and often the entire courtyard is filled with bi-monthly all-school meetings. The street edge of both the classroom building and administration wing is clad in a perforated corrugated metal, dampening sound and providing sun control. At the prow of the building an outdoor amphitheater rises above a covered entrance where students can wait for pick up.

Formal Architectural Strategy

The design takes advantage of the length of the site by stretching the classroom building more than 400’ along Silver Lake Boulevard, in a curving metal-clad 2-story structure attached to the eastern parking area/sports deck. The classroom building is single loaded, allowing for direct connections between the classrooms and the outdoor spaces. At the western end of the site the Administration anchors the Silver Lake/Virgil/Temple Street primary pedestrian entrance. An elevated, stepped classroom defines this entrance and provides for a protected, open gathering area underneath. The placement of the Administration area at the west and parking/sports deck area to the east create a ground floor linear courtyard fronting the classrooms.

Building Technology 

The primary structure is in concrete masonry units, metal trusses and metal decking. On all exterior, street-facing walls, the wall cladding consists of perforated and solid painted corrugated metal panels over painted CMU, creating a variety of luminous, street-scaled color fields while protecting the south-facing façade. The perforated panels also shade the operable classroom windows. Planting will extend up the perforated panels over time.

The north-side, courtyard-facing facades comprise extensive storefront glazing, providing direct visual connections from the circulation and social spaces to the classrooms. These facades are also clad in corrugated metal panels.

Paving patterns reflect the scale and panelized nature of the facades, as staggered bands of smooth concrete are interposed with planting beds and rougher concrete areas. The landscaping is minimal, comprising drought-resistant and robust agaves, shrubs and trees.