Completion Date:     12/18/2013

Square Footage:      25000

Building Use:           Institution

Location:                 4961 64th St., San Diego, CA 92115

Project Description:

The Language Academy is a language focused School consisting of kindergarten to eight grade. The campus is surrounded by residential neighborhoods and it is adjacent to the San Diego Unified School District Child Development Center. The old kindergarten classrooms were smaller in size and lacked innovative teaching standards. The program includes 12 classrooms, an outdoor playground, a new parent drop-off and a joint-use sports field.
This project is part of a comprehensive District Master Plan to improve existing schools and explore opportunities for new building designs. The design of the new building has an “L” shape in order to be more inviting and embrace the visual axis from the new drop-off area through a pathway “promenade.” The new promenade connects all of the existing buildings along a spine starting from the joint-use city park, then to the campus entrance, and eventually leading to the new building.
The new two story classroom building is designed to create a campus identity along Catoctin Drive and houses 6 kindergarten classrooms on the lower floor and 6 elementary classrooms on the upper floor. The new building embraces a secure courtyard for the kindergarten playground, which includes a green screen fence and new landscape that provides shade for the children while playing.
The upper floor open balcony walkway is wrapped with a perforated screen panel system. It allows light penetration through the wall and protects children from excessive sun. The screen wall is composed with primary colors and inspired from Mondrian paintings creating visual enhancement to the kinder playground below and an interactive space for the elementary classrooms above. The interplay between these elements has created fun places for the children and a stimulating environment.
Overall, the design intention is to integrate the simple building and its program with the new landscape at the ground level, and also to create porosity through screen walls at the second floor. At both ends of the building, the stairways are pulled away to create “floating” volumes. This offers views to the central space as well as visual architectural elements from the campus. Through this visual “connection,’ the building represents a relationship between the site which signifies the campus terminus axis, and the view towards the promenade which represents the future. The building itself symbolizes the present.
This project participated in CHPS/High Performance Incentive Program and received 35 sustainable points. This allowed the District to receive incentives for additional funding from the State of California. Additional incentives were also provided through Savings by Design.
The design provides sustainable learning and teaching environments utilizing natural day lighting and natural ventilation in all classrooms. Roof top planning has allowed for the installation of photovoltaic solar cells, which will dramatically reduce energy consumption. The design of a cool roof, along with sun control shading devices, will reduce cooling demand. Interior and exterior finishes with recycled content contain no VOC’s, while interior acoustic control provides instruction intelligibility. Exterior noises are filtered with enhanced building envelope and glazing technologies. The incorporation of these collective sustainable strategies, along with the solar photovoltaic panels, will create a proper setting for today’s “green” learning environment.

C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment

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