Currently "on the boards" in our office, this project constitutes a new 6 classroom wing addition to a 1906 Beaux Arts style main building. The new wing replaces an older seismically hazardous two-classroom wing providing much needed additional classroom space for this expanding charter school.
We are also re-working the lower level of the main building, removing small rooms to open up the assembly space to natural lighting from both the east and west. The exiting is changed to allow the children to come out to the playground directly from the assembly area on the lower floor.
A long, gently sloped corridor provides access from grade to the lower level of the main building and along with other improvements, specifically new restrooms and a new elevator, the completed building will become wheelchair accessible.
The roof form has several functions: distinguishing each classroom bay architecturally; providing a south-westerly exposure for a future photovoltaic system; and allowing classrooms on the top floor to have high, open ceilings and natural day-lighting from clerestory windows. The new corridor is transparent: an intermediary zone between the outside and the inside areas.
