Symbolic and Creative Learning: High school campus’ architecture is expression of students’ creativity
by Jonathan McGaha | January 31, 2010 12:00 am
With neighbors such as the highly acclaimed Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a building’s design needs to make a strong statement for the art of creativity. Los Angeles’ new flagship high school for the performing and visual arts-Los Angeles Area High School
#9-which opened in September 2009 to its first class of 1,600 students, does just that.
The architectural firm of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, Vienna, Austria, was commissioned by the Los Angeles Unified School District to design a campus that would express the creativity of its students through the architecture of its buildings. The architect proceeded to create the campus around the library, “a centralized space of knowledge,” which rises in the middle of the school courtyard as a slanted, truncated, asymmetrical cone, visible from the school’s entrance. HMC Architects, Los Angeles, was the executive architect, and PCL Construction Services, Los Angeles, was the general contractor.
Campus Sculptures
Three sculptural figures-the theater, library and lobby-play into the project. They house the public programs of the school and communicate their content through their special sculptural forms. With them, the project contributes to the current effort to recapture the city’s downtown through the public, and potentially turns the school campus into a lively forum for cultural exchange. The sculptures also relate to the immediate context of cultural facilities along Grand Avenue, making the arts high school part of it.
A tower with spiraling ramp in the shape of the number nine is located on top of the theater’s fly loft, serving as a widely visible sign for the arts in the city and a point of identification for the students. Inside the tower, an event, conference and exhibition space with a unique view of the downtown skyline and across the city is planned. The spiraling ramp was planned to serve as the second exit from the tower. The tower connects the school visually and formally with downtown Los Angeles, and together with the oppositely located cathedral’s tower, the twin towers will become a new landmark for the city.
The second sculpture, the theater lobby on Grand Avenue, serves as the public entrance to the school and theater, giving the school an address on Grand Avenue while integrating the school with the corridor. The lobby is also equipped to be used as an exhibition space.
The third sculpture, the library, is cone-shaped and slanted with a large skylight that provides natural light, as well as an environment for focused learning.
Meanwhile, the four classroom buildings form the rectangular perimeter of the school’s interior courtyards. Features include large round windows to offer glimpses of activities from the outside and to maximize natural light while offering students visual contact with the city. The main school entrance faces the community and features an 80-foot- (24-m-) wide grand open stair that leads to the courtyard and library with the tower and theater in the background.
The 335,172-square-foot (31,137-m2) campus on the 10.26-acre
(4-hectare) site of old Fort Monroe, includes 64 new classrooms in four academies for education in music, theater arts, dance and visual arts. The 1,000-seat theater has a full backstage and fly loft, allowing students to learn all of the technical aspects of operating on a professional stage.
Visions of Metal
Windsor, Ontario, Canada-based Riverside Group fabricated 34,800 square feet (3,233 m2) of 0.16-inch (4-mm) Reynobond ACM, FR core in Gray Velvet with a Valspar finish; 13,000 square feet (1,208 m2) of 0.16-inch Reynobond Natural Stainless-Steel Composite Material, FR core with a Natural InvariMatte finish; and 3,200 square feet
(297 m2) of 0.16-inch Reynobond Natural Brushed ACM, FR core with a Clear Valspar finish. Eastman, Ga.-based Alcoa Architectural Products supplied the Reynobond material; Minneapolis-based Valspar provided the Valspar finish; and Contrarian Metal Resources, Allison Park, Pa., developed InvariMatte, a non-reflective stainless-steel finish. Custom Metal Fabricators, Orange, Calif., installed the Reynobond panels in Riverside’s R4-300 dry joint pressure equalized rainscreen system. The helix is clad in 11-gauge perforated InvariMatte stainless-steel panels; the tower is covered with panels of soft reflection InvariMatte; and the library shingles are also InvariMatte.
“InvariMatte is user-friendly because no pattern matching is involved, so direction isn’t an issue, resulting in a handsome, smooth finish,” explained Glen Meyer, Custom Metal Fabricators project manager.
“Rather than LEED certification, schools are covered by
[Collaborative for High Performance Schools], and LA HS #9 was rated above average,” explained Karolin Schmidbaur, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU project partner. Spaces with large volumes are only cooled in the areas in use, so the upper space is not cooled, rather heat is exhausted and the cool air enters from the lower level. In addition, most windows open and close to allow fresh air for space ventilation. The structural design meets the stringent requirements for seismic zone 4.
Alcoa Architectural Products, www.alcoaarchitecturalproducts.com
Contrarian Metal Resources, www.metalresources.net
Valspar, www.paintandcolor.com
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/symbolic-and-creative-learning-high-school-campus-architecture-is-expression-of-students-creativity/