Reimagining in a Time of Recovery

After identifying the basic needs of spaces that were lost in the fire, Los Angeles Unified worked with us to rethink programs through the lens of evolving the campus into a forward-thinking environment with expanded learning and teaching opportunities. With the loss of career technical educational spaces, the two-story building centralizes new film, media, engineering, and maker spaces, with acoustic infrastructure, advanced filming capabilities, and indoor/outdoor flexibility to enhance opportunities for students exploring diverse career pathways. New collaborative and gathering spaces serve as valuable resources for the entire campus.

The new campus builds an identity of interwoven indoor-outdoor spaces. Learning extends beyond the classroom, ensuring that circulation, gathering, and specialized spaces serve a dual purpose of connection and enrichment. Our design draws inspiration from the high school’s position between the cliffs of the coastline and the canyon beyond. Learning stairs, ground-floor science, engineering, and maker spaces that connect to outdoor learning zones, and classrooms organized in stacked configurations with adjacent teacher collaboration areas allow learning to flow into breakout zones carved into circulation. Outdoor plazas, rain gardens, and amphitheater-like spaces reinforce these layered moments of learning and gathering and help create a sense of togetherness on campus.

Fire Resiliency and Sustainability Strategies

Our design uses the site’s natural contours, fire lanes, and active athletic edges, introducing new experiences without disrupting the school’s existing character. Maximized daylighting, natural ventilation, and native landscaping reduce the campus’ environmental impact.

Strategic landscape design, materials and assemblies, and mechanical systems provide fire protection for the new campus. Our team designed defensible spaces through native, fire-adapted plantings, terraced slopes, and shaded fuel break areas. The design also maintains a 30-foot defensible zone around the new buildings, with no woody plants, no bark mulch, and fire-resistant ground covers. Stormwater features serve fire break purposes and provide rainwater collection. We specified Class-A roofing, and non-combustible cladding, including metal panel systems and brick veneer, the latter creating a connection to the architecture of the existing campus buildings.

To ensure indoor air quality, the buildings can switch to a protective mode during wildfire conditions. Our design includes sealed economizers, reduced roof penetrations, and rooftop mechanical strategies to limit smoke intrusion. Rooftop solar panels energize the building in the event of an emergency.