by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

Summary: The 24-acre, 500,000-square-foot former Ambassador Hotel site in Los Angeles is being reborn as the new Heritage K-12 School Campus. Pasadena, Calif.-based architecture firm GonzálezlGoodale took advantage of the site’s topography to create a campus of three separate buildings for K-3, middle, and high school students. The buildings currently are under construction, and the K-3 building is slated to be completed first, by fall 2009. When complete, approximately 4,500 students will attend the Heritage K-12 School Campus. The project uses sustainable strategies adopted by the State of California called CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools), which are comparable to LEED® standards.

How do you . . . transform a historic hotel site into a K-12 campus?

The new Heritage K-12 School Campus project will be sited on Wilshire Boulevard’s former Ambassador Hotel site. The Mediterranean Revival-style Ambassador Hotel was once a Hollywood hot spot during the “golden era” of film and a popular presidential stopover. It also gained notoriety as the site of the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy assassination. The Los Angeles Unified School District won control of the hotel in 2001 and razed it last year.

GonzálezlGoodale worked with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Local Superintendents Office on the school project. “It’s three separate schools, but it will be run under one principal,” explains Armando L. González, FAIA, principal in charge. The $85 million, 90,000-square-foot K-3 building, the first phase of the project, includes a central plant facility and a 320-car parking structure with playfields above. It will accommodate 1,100 students. Phase Two consists of the middle and high school buildings, for a total of 410,000 square feet costing $300 million. Both the middle and high school buildings will each feature a 500-square-foot learning community space. In all, the middle school will accommodate 1,000 students, and the high school, 2,400 students.

Key location; buildings separated by site elevation
González says the neighborhood around the Ambassador Hotel site—like many parts of LA—has a pressing need for local schools. “Many of the students and children in this area were bused to distant schools because there weren’t suitable schools within this part of our city. The Ambassador site was an available property in a strategic location for students who live within walking distance and didn’t require moving housing or businesses. It was a key location,” he explains.

The two-story K-3 School will house 46 classrooms and be on street level at the southwest corner of the site. It will have a main entrance and vehicular drop-off area for a direct connection to the community. The multi-level middle and high schools will be built approximately 30 feet above the K-3 School and face north.

“We took advantage of the elevation of the site topography,” explains González. “The buildings will be separated by the site’s natural elevation, so each school level can have its own identity and spaces plus its own iconicity for the community to reference. It also accentuates the connection of the K-12 grade levels. The idea is that K-3 students can, in time, see themselves going up to the middle and high schools.”

The middle and high schools will have entrances on the east and west sides. In between will be a north-south linear quad adorned with a mosaic labyrinth. “There will be a rich public art program integrating education and history on campus,” notes González.

A natural amphitheatre of grass steps will descend from the middle and high schools to the K-3 school, further connecting the space and bringing younger and older students together. The grass steps form seating for events, performances, and student and faculty gatherings. A multipurpose area will be located at the base of the amphitheater. In addition, along Wilshire Boulevard, there will be a large soccer field and a linear green memorializing Robert F. Kennedy.

Golden era gives way to the green era
There are significant sustainable elements on the Heritage project. “We worked hard with the district and saw the merits of developing sustainability,” says González. “In California, the sustainable program adopted by the public schools is similar to LEED and is called CHPS, an acronym for Collaborative for High Performance Schools. We have CHPS grading.”

A major first, he says, is the use of thermal displacement ventilation. “We pump the air into the space at the lower part of the classroom instead of from the ceiling straight down. It actually pumps stuff out from strategic locations in the classroom to help keep children healthier longer, with less chances of getting colds.”

And add the California sun. “There’s much glazing,” González says. “We have a five-story glazing on the high school with classrooms facing Wilshire Boulevard. At night, especially in winter, it’s going to make a wonderful statement about public education to the city.”

The site location also eliminates traffic. “There’s parking for faculty, but no student parking. Most students will be walking or taking public transportation, such as the light rail system two blocks away. It all adds to sustainability.”