Project Data:

Completion Date:     9/1/2016

Square Footage:      245000

Building Use:           Public Education/High School

Design Architect:      HMC Architects

Project Description:

Surrounded by regional history and inspired by local geography, Portola High School in Irvine, California, is a twenty-first-century school where learning happens everywhere. With flexible open spaces, collaboration zones, and science and innovation labs, it looks and feels more like a college campus than a high school.

Planning Process: Addressing Challenges

We knew the first steps to a successful project would be through a tailored planning process with the district. We met with the district’s leadership team and created a structured, two-tiered planning committee to help steer the design through the planning process. The previously developed master plan needed to be reduced by 30 percent to meet the budget; this was our biggest challenge. We collaborated with the key stakeholders to come up with a classroom reduction strategy. This was a difficult item to navigate, but we were able to get concessions from all stakeholders. We were able to find multiple uses for key spaces while still providing collaboration zones for students and staff at each of the learning wings.

Design Strategies: Context and Sustainability

In order to respect local conditions and maintain environmental responsibility, the design team took active inspiration from the surrounding geography. The site rests on the edge of local Irvine landmark, the Great Park, formerly known as the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The campus also connects to the adjacent Agua Chinon Arroyo, a recently restored riverbed, and a wildlife corridor connecting the Cleveland National Forest and the Laguna Coast wilderness area. The architecture draws from and points to these surrounding natural conditions. A linear pedestrian promenade starts at the main entry and extends through the middle of campus, continues past athletic fields, and ends at the stadium. Vegetated roofs are selectively used to improve energy efficiency and comfort, and a PV farm over the parking lot offsets 21% of annual energy use, which recent analysis shows is performing much better than anticipated. In place of LEED, the project pursued the High Performance Incentive (HPI) program, a version of CHPS managed by the California Division of the State Architect (DSA). These design strategies create a “living laboratory” on the campus where students can have a hands-on experience of their STEM coursework.

Interactive Programming: Learning Happens Everywhere

An organic assemblage of buildings and classrooms defines areas for informal gathering, dining, and studying throughout the campus. To encourage collaboration, student common rooms are located between all classroom wings. “We can go wherever we want. It’s not like a typical school. We get to feel comfortable, but still be productive at the same time,” says one student. We created two quads: one more active near electives and one more contemplative near the clustered classroom buildings. These right-sized spaces have bench seating and shading to allow varied group gatherings. Even teachers are provided these flexible zones—cross-disciplinary staff development opportunities are located between levels for inter-department collaboration. These strategies and features create a dynamic educational environment where learning happens at every opportunity.