Design/Completion 2003/2007
La Mirada, California
28,900 s.f.
Building Structure: Light steel framing with wood infill framing.
Building Materials: Exterior plaster, high efficiency glazing, High-performance building shell
The rolling hills of La Mirada are dotted with trees and single family homes. The local high school campus, designed in the 1960’s, is a sprawling plan of single story buildings. The community was seeking a design that would capture today’s culture, provide a place for students to gather, enhance their academic science experience and create a new edge between the campus and the play fields beyond.
La Mirada High School is distinguished by a tightly packed central campus plan that leaves little room for planned growth within its borders. The new classroom/lab addition replaces a myriad of relocatable classrooms formerly littered around the campus perimeter. The new 28,900 square foot building provides eight classrooms, four stacked science labs, and two bays for administrative and support space that can be converted into future classrooms. The “imaginary” site perimeter encapsulates 34,000 square feet of building and surrounding new outdoor courtyards and gathering places.
The building hugs the edge of the site, gingerly poking at the inner ring with an undulating concentric curve that transitions the podium of the existing campus area to the play fields below. Vehicular access between buildings and pedestrian access through grade changes has been carefully accommodated and concealed through a succession of courtyards and defined outdoor gathering places. Landscape courtyards and seating provides a setting that encourages the students to interact with other students. The exchange of ideas is seen as vital to enriching the curriculum of the school. The scale of the two story building has been reduced through the fractured plan and winding circulation corridor. The exterior articulation of the arched facade shades the south face of the building while protecting it from stray foul balls. The result is a fitting but unique contribution to the high school campus, creating flexible yet highly defined classrooms and laboratories to support a District commitment to an aggressive science curriculum.
