Georgina Blach Intermediate School and Gymnasium

Narratives

Architect Narrative

Exemplary Ideas

This 500-student, grades 7-8 intermediate school is one of the strongest public schools in California, with high academic standards, support for individual student growth, and a cohesive school community. The suburban district is committed to the small neighborhood school and the individual attention possible in that setting. At the same time the school runs a broad selection of programs such as a much larger school might be expected to provide. As well as core academics, classes such as music, drama, art, shop, cooking and physical education are tightly scheduled to expose all the students to a range of experiences. A project orientation is used in all disciplines, from language to science to math.

Students are active in shaping the environment and the culture of the school. The “student store” is a valued campus feature. Student art is evident all over the campus and an outdoor stage supports spontaneous activities as well as formal events such as graduation.

Design Innovations

The project modernized 35,000 square feet of buildings and added 40,000 square feet. A new joint-use city/school district gym was also added. The new master plan places community oriented facilities such as the gym, auditorium, performing arts, library and administration to the street side of the campus, and orients the academic classrooms around a new quad that incorporates an existing mature tree and the outdoor stage.

A highly participatory design process involved the district, school staff, parents and students in identifying unique features of the existing school and initiatives made possible by the building program. Existing murals, the outdoor stage and the student store were given greater importance as a result. Social moments that occur around student lockers led to a more pleasant siting than typically occurs. The heavy project emphasis in the curriculum is served by provision of display windows for every classroom, a project room in the library, storage for poster-size media in all classrooms, outdoor project patios and a science garden. Large sliding doors increase transparency between the inside and outside.

Like the academic program, the facilities are designed to be multi-layered. The school is a California High Performance School, demonstrating green materials, energy efficiency and community involvement. The covered walkway canopy extends to the student drop-off area, where it becomes a sundial. Skylights in the walkway cast patterns of light on the pavement. The student store is marked by a tower that is a clock and a sky window. The gateway to the campus also organizes student lockers. Classrooms around the quad share north facing clerestories for effective daylighting, but are assembled into buildings that facilitate campus circulation.

Throughout the campus the design supports visibility and awareness of the extraordinary creativity, productivity and supportiveness of the educational program. Physical connections with the neighborhood and the natural setting occur at every scale, from natural redwood siding up close at doorways, to project display, to the use of light both to illuminate and to inspire.