Cesar E. Chavez Education Center

Narratives

Architect Narrative

1.
This Project in Design will serve pre-schoolers, K-5 students, parents and community members of all ages. It will embrace its surrounding diverse urban community by creating a true neighborhood center through educational and childcare programs, provision of much-needed recreational and joint/dedicated community-use spaces. The core of this 600-student public elementary school is 25 typical/special ed/resource classrooms, each with outdoor learning patios or shared decks, conceived in two-story, fully day-lit wings to form two “small schools.” The Program supports small class sizes of 20 for K-3 and team teaching. It includes 4 kindergartens, a special purpose “Flex” room for art and science, adaptable administrative offices, a parent resource center, a multi-purpose building/gym with a high school size basketball court with bleachers, a dedicated community meeting room with its own kitchen, a music room with instrument storage, a (potentially) joint-use library/media center with computer lab, a dedicated cafeteria with kitchen and dining patio, an independent three-classroom 72-student pre-school/daycare facility and two on-site extended care classrooms for before/after school care. The 95,647-square-foot facility will also maximize approximately 4 acres of outdoor recreation space, including fields (the only large green open space in this urban neighborhood), play structures, basketball and hardtop play surfaces shared with the community, and over 60 parking spaces in two lots, with ample safe drop-off zones. The main entry plaza, fronting the bridge between the two schools, features a clock tower/sundial/elevator core with community information kiosk at its base.

Design / Program
To create a more intimate educational environment, two smaller schools have been designed, each located in a 300-student wing joined by a gallery bridge. The main administration and multi-purpose area are located in one wing, while a secondary administrative staff/resource area and separate cafeteria, which doubles as a large group learning space, anchors the other wing. Small flexible teaching rooms, shared and located between paired classrooms, create space for one-on-one tutoring, small group learning space, project-based learning, and/or teacher’s offices/meeting rooms, with extra storage. Each ground floor classroom has been shaped to create outdoor learning patios, while upper floor classrooms share two rooftop decks/gardens. One of the District’s main problems is the supervision and maintenance of “gang” toilets. This has been addressed by providing each classroom with its own unisex toilet so that each class may take responsibility for its own.

Urban Context
Located in a tough urban neighborhood, it replaces a derelict warehouse to create a new school/community center, near the heart of a commercial /transportation hub, with open-space fields and play areas.

Maintenance / Life Use
Operating costs have been minimized by the use of sustainable, healthy materials and products with proven durability, (such as exposed concrete, natural linoleum, “no VOC” casework material - including FSC certified wood veneers), energy efficiency, ease of operation and low cost maintenance. Maximization of natural daylighting and ventilation almost eliminates daytime electric lighting use, thus further reducing operation and maintenance costs.

Energy Efficiency / High Performance School / Sustainable Design
The entire site layout and specific academic areas are designed to maximize natural daylighting through a combination of controlled south glazing with light shelves, diffuse north facing glazing, and Kalwall skylights. Maximum natural ventilation, passive heating and cooling (with air conditioning only in the multi-purpose room and library), and a well-integrated efficient lighting and sensor controls system help achieve the energy analysis of 25-35% energy savings over minimum state standards. Utilizing DOE-2 computer energy analysis for a whole building approach, specific daylighting consulting and physical modeling using a heliodon and actual lighting level measurements, the academic classrooms and corridors, should need supplemental electric lighting only on the innermost portions of the lower floor classrooms. In addition to the use of high efficiency (Energy Star) appliances and fixtures, water conserving equipment and systems include low-flow lavatory toilets and faucets, possibly automatic flush valve, and irrigation. Other water conservation strategies include use of low-maintenance, drought tolerant native landscape/vegetation. The project incorporates Best Practices of High Performance School design: general conditions optimize areas of site planning, healthy interiors, electric lighting/controls, day lighting, building enclosure, and HVAC, emphasizing “buildings that teach.”

Unique / Effective Space Use
The basic classroom configuration pairs two classrooms together, each with its own toilet and a shared small group room between them. This shared room is accessible from either classroom and can be subdivided into two small “offices” by a sectional partition. Currently the “small school” educational trend supports team teaching and the merging of classes for some portions of curriculum. This operates happily with both sets of doors open for free movement between classrooms. With doors closed the room may be used for small group or project work in teams of 4-8, small meetings, and/or parent conferences.

Use of the facility may also be adapted or expanded through designating the extended care area into one (or less) of the two currently planned classrooms. They may be reclaimed for regular classrooms or to infill the second-story deck area(s) to create more classroom space. The computer lab and the “Flex” classroom have adjacent deck areas for overflow.

Creative Material / “Three dimensional textbook”
Opportunity was taken to expose and use sustainable teaching tools. A totally new “green” environment can design strategies, stimulate critical thinking and independent learning in general, as well as serve as an integral part of education on the importance of preserving our environment and its natural resources/ecosystems.

One Example:
Natural / Energy Conservation and Earth Rotation
The design basis for natural daylighting results in the creation of a non-traditional shape to the classrooms through specific orientation of glazing (true south and north) with respect to the sun. This may stimulate students and parents alike to ask “why?”, thus providing the opportunity for teachers to explain about the sun, earth’s rotation, and how natural daylighting contributes to low energy use of non-renewable resources.

Life-Long Learning, Community Integrated & Place of Learning
Community Use facilities have been designed into the school, including a plaza, a community room complete with a full kitchen, the library/media center, and a fully equipped multi-purpose room. A large recreational outdoor open space has been carved out for neighborhood use during non-school hours.

Safety / Security
Entries, outdoor gathering areas, parking lots and playfields are all within full view of building and landscape design. Perimeter fencing, control supported by sensitive gateways, and motion sensor lighting provide basic security control. A long parent drop-off area, adjacent to the kindergarten, fully separated from parking/traffic, provides pedestrian safety. Vehicular traffic patterns and bike routes are separated from pedestrian paths to promote safety.

2.
Parents and local community groups had demanded a relief from severely overcrowded schools for years. Finally with the removal of an abandoned warehouse and a new neighborhood school to revitalize the area, a bond measure was passed to fund their dreams. In partnership, the City supported the grass roots mandate by supplying the site in exchange for an agreement that the school design Beta-test its still in-progress Sustainable Design Guidelines and include community amenities like the common space open play fields and the clock tower with information kiosk.

The design process included broad-based community meetings throughout the programming stages and site committee meetings to set the mission goals (for example maximizing daylighting and sustainable design), and programmatic elements. The overall site committee consisted of community members, local business leaders, parents, teachers, administrators and District maintenance staff. As the design process progressed to “small schools,” an additional user group of the principal and teachers guided the final decisions. It is hoped the design team can continue to work with site teachers to further integrate the sustainable design aspects directly into curriculum.

Importantly, the design benefited from experts in sustainable materials, independent energy analysis/advice and daylighting modeling.