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High school common area with modern lighting in star shapes suspended from the ceiling and on an orange accent wall over a staircase
West Park High School

Creative Spaces Designed to Foster Relationships

Client

Roseville Joint Union High School District

Project Location

Roseville, CA

Area

394,000 SF

Students

2400

Roseville Joint Union High School District is breaking facility norms with its new West Park High School, a campus that moves beyond traditional boundaries to a series of interconnected spaces that unite formal and informal learning opportunities. Mentors and learners are immersed in an environment that fosters relationships, builds trust, and maintains respect for all campus users. Here, the teacher is a guide on the side and no longer the sage on stage.

Our design nurtures lifelong learners in a nimble, student-centered high school that also serves as a cultural center for the community. Academic environments consist of four, three-story collaborative learning suites. Each ground floor area features specialty classrooms with glass walls and operable garage doors that display and extend learning spaces to the outdoors to create additional teaching opportunities. Classrooms are supplemented with project areas, providing the required flexibility for next-generation teaching and learning.

Learning stairs provide informal gathering spaces and connect second and third floor general classrooms. These reconfigurable spaces can flex as technology and curriculum needs change. Digital displays and mobile furnishings also empower users with choices to support a wide range of learning preferences. The school supports physical health, as well as mental wellbeing, with athletic facilities, gym, and pool located on campus.

Guiding Principles

Together district leaders, students, community members, business partners, and our team identified four guiding principles as the philosophical foundation for all decisions. We also posed two fundamental questions to drive our design. The first question to the larger group ensures our design will meet the educational needs of Roseville for many generations. “What environments must we provide to prepare our students for their futures?” The second question aimed at students ensures our team delivered on their desires. “What do you need to be successful?”



01
Dynamic Learning Opportunities

Collaborative Learning Suites

Three-story collaborative learning suites provide students and educators with groupings of adaptable, diverse spaces that enable multiple learning styles to be easily facilitated. Each CLS has its own identity, with a name such as River, Oak, and Sierra and its own color palette. Raw open space for CTE, science, and art classes are throughout the ground level, while upper floors house active classroom spaces.

 

Learning suites are linked to and rise from the Nexus, a diverse mix of spaces that include dining, information resources, fitness, and transaction environments. The Nexus concept enables applied learning to function in a more realistic environment with community interaction and outdoor access.

02
Building Relationships

Soul of the School

Students and staff have a sense of belonging and feel empowered to effect change in an environment of trust and respect. Students have access to spaces designed for them, by them. For instance, the concept of student-owned hubs interwoven in every building throughout the campus supports programs defined by the students year to year. These hubs are used for performances, recreation, collaboration on messy projects, study, exhibitions, and more. Additionally, educators have access to dedicated spaces for teacher collaboration and cross-discipline planning activities.

 

The main dining commons in the Grove multi-purpose building is dubbed Panther Den, a flexible space with large roll up doors to the exterior. The Panther Den extends to a learning stair and upper area with a dedicated dining cave nestled on the second floor.

03
Transparency

Celebration of Learning

Learning is open and visible at West Park High School, which is filled with small and large group zones, workshops, and collaboration areas. Natural lighting and interesting sight lines enhance the learning experience, develop indoor-outdoor connections, and create a sense of drama.

 

The combination of minimal solid walls and transparency in the learning suites maximizes flexibility and creates spaces where learning is celebrated. This is a place where learners and mentors are highly engaged and inspire each other to window shop for their future.

04
Community

Centerpiece that Transcends Learning

The school is a critical element in the overall fabric of the Roseville community. It is a beacon of learning that symbolizes the values of the local community and is a welcoming environment for all ages to utilize. Learning extends beyond the campus through relationships with businesses, organizations, industries, and recreational groups.

 

Participation in extracurricular activities such as athletics is popular in this community, and the shift in how we watch sports is reflected in the state-of-the-art sports facilities. West Park is the district’s first school where track and field are separate from the main stadium, giving fans access directly to the playing field.

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