by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

How do you . . . build an urban school that allows students to feel independent and proud where developable land is tight?

Summary: In the land of opportunity, sizeable chunks of developable land are increasingly rare, especially for a program that includes the diverse athletic, art, and educational functions that constitute the American high school. Open space available for school construction is increasingly a problem for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). As people continue to move into California, the planners of this once spread out and land-rich region are rethinking the one-story building norm. The solution for LAUSD’s new Panorama High School as envisioned by architecture firm WWCOT in L.A. was to embrace the density challenge and create a four-story high school wrapped around a quad. The project’s greatest design challenges were to accommodate facilities for 2,100 students in a dense urban area, provide safe and secure learning environments, and foster academic inspiration and pride with a sense of student and community ownership.

Providing space
Located on 18.22 acres, Panorama High School occupies about half as much land as prescribed by the California high school design standards, says Andrea Cohen Gehring, FAIA, design partner at WWCOT. “The traditional 2,100-person high school would typically need 30-some acres,” she says. “LAUSD was lucky to find 18 acres.” Sited between a residential neighborhood and a commercial area, the school buildings were designed to mirror the height of the commercial buildings on the north and match the scale of the neighborhood to the south.

WWCOT worked closely with the school district, neighborhood residents, and local businesses to determine how best to meet the needs of the community. As the local residents are predominantly Hispanic, the design team held a series of meetings in both English and Spanish to address concerns. They also observed students at other local schools and interviewed them to understand their educational needs and social and recreational wants.

The $71.8 million, 250,461-square-foot high school opened last October. With a site plan similar to a higher education campus, the four-story, U-shaped building surrounds a quad in order to best preserve space. The two gyms and the physical education department were placed above the food service area, says Gehring, “giving us the ability to utilize the land and put all of the functional aspects of the school on the site. At the same time, we have a full stadium with a football and soccer field and baseball and softball fields, so we have a lot of green space left.” To provide necessary faculty and student parking, WWCOT placed the parking on-grade and built a deck above that holds the basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts. Modern and efficient classrooms feature large operable windows that introduce natural daylight and ventilation, and the two-story library reading room provides users with a commanding view of the valley. The school also features a full performance auditorium with ticketing booth, a cooking demonstration lab, a community room, and an Olympic-size pool.

WWCOT addressed the community’s need for recreational and social gathering places by strategically placing the library, auditorium, gyms, and swimming pool on the south side of the campus for secure, after-hours access. This has enabled the local low-income residents to take advantage of learning resources and recreational amenities that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

Designing for safety
Early in the design process, district representatives expressed their concerns about providing a safe and secure environment while still fostering pride within students. The organization of buildings around a quad created a strong sense of place, but also keeps the students in a controlled environment that can be easily monitored. Once inside the quad, students can move about freely in a safe environment with a wide variety of socializing areas. Gehring emphasizes that 99 percent of the quad can be seen from two sites within the buildings, allowing staff and faculty to keep tabs easily on what’s happening in the quad.

“The fact of the matter is we can’t design schools to be fortresses,” says Gehring. “We have to be careful not to be a reactionary society. Architecture is not going to solve the world’s social problems, and we cannot build fortresses because [then we send a] negative message to our students, especially in urban areas. I believe firmly that if you create an environment that looks like that, that’s going to push that person to that side and we want to push the person to the other side. We want that student to walk into this facility and feel inspired and respected. We want them to see the opportunities, not the negative.”

Local pride
In its design of the overall campus, WWCOT defined the elements through visual cues. To delineate the school’s major walkway, concrete masonry pylons begin at the urban edge of campus and continue along the borders. A red, freestanding wing wall flanks the exterior stairs and defines the school’s main entry, while bright, primary colors accent the stairs. These colors are meant to foster academic inspiration while reflecting the diverse and colorful neighborhood. A sense of pride and inspiration resonates throughout the campus design, reinforcing the vision that “all students can and will succeed” in attaining the American Dream.

Gehring says that this project was one that she related to and connected with in a very personal way. “I’m a product of LAUSD,” she explains. “I was born in Argentina, but we moved to North Hollywood in 1976 and I went to North Hollywood High, so I’ve been a Spanish immigrant. I relate a lot to these kids who are here. That’s why my family came to this country: for the educational opportunities for the kids and the family. My parents didn’t have more than a sixth-grade education and yet, here I am. I’m a licensed architect and a Fellow of the AIA, and for me to design a school for the district that helped make this happen was personally so fulfilling.”