New High School Planned in Los Angeles

  • 05/08/18

Amino School Los AngelesOn July 22, 2014 a massive fire broke out and destroyed half of the Animo South Los Angeles High School campus. Located in one of the toughest areas in South Central Los Angeles, an area that was a central trouble spot during the 1964 Watts and the 1992 Rodney King Riots, residents’ median family income is less than $35,000/year and 25-percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Green Dot Public Schools is replacing the burned school with a new public charter high school for 630 students that is visually open but entirely secured.

The replacement building contains 11 classrooms, two science labs, a faculty lounge, new administrative and counseling offices, and public courtyard space for student gatherings and activities.

Designed on an extremely limited budget and aggressive schedule, simple cost-effective gestures were deployed in the use of cladding, fenestration, color and transparency to create a memorable sense of richness, providing a bright moment in an extremely tough inner-city community. Unlike most school that are enclosed by a property line security fence, the South Los Angeles High School building is surrounded by a 20-foot-high perforated bullet resistant metal walls that are integrated into the building design. The project architectural firm is Brooks + Scarpa. Learn more at www.brooksscarpa.com.

Featured

  • How One School Reimagined Learning Spaces—and What Others Can Learn

    When Collegedale Academy, a PreK–8 school outside Chattanooga, Tenn., needed a new elementary building, we faced the choice that many school leaders eventually confront: repair an aging facility or reimagine what learning spaces could be. Our historic elementary school held decades of memories for families, including some who had once walked its halls as children themselves. But years of wear and the need for costly repairs made it clear that investing in the old building would only patch the problems rather than solve them.

  • KI Launches K–12 Classroom Furniture Giveaway

    Contract furniture company KI recently announced the launch of its fourth-annual Classroom Furniture Giveaway, which awards $50,000 each to four K–12 educators across the U.S., according to a news release. The goal is to address decreasing student engagement and increasing teacher burnout numbers by updating learning spaces to accommodate modern needs.

  • Tennessee State University Gains Approval for New Engineering Facility

    Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., recently announced that it has received approval from the Tennessee State Building Commission to build a new engineering building on campus, according to a university news release. The 70,000-square-foot, $50-million facility will play home to the university’s engineering programs and the Applied & Industrial Technology program.

  • Colorado State University Global, SCTE Launch Online Certificate Program

    Colorado State University Global (CSU Global), based in Denver, Colo., recently announced a partnership with CableLabs subsidiary the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) to launch an online certificate training program for broadband professionals, according to a news release.