Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

California Boarding School Opens New Inquiry Collaborative Facility

  • By Matt Jones
  • 07/29/25

Cate School, a boarding school in Carpinteria, Calif., for students grades 9–12, recently announced that it has finished renovating a historic dining hall into a new academic hub, according to a news release. The school partnered with Blackbird Architects and Tangram Interiors on the two-story, 16,000-square-foot Inquiry Collaborative.

Building features include “media and technology studios, classrooms, a ceramics studio, study pods, offices, a double-height terraced reading and lecture space, and the school’s library collection,” the news release reports. The project’s goal was to create a flexible, versatile space allowing students to work together, recharge, and create.

Photo courtesy of Tangram Interiors

“We weren’t just designing furniture layouts—we were helping to shape how students experience academic inquiry,” said Tristin Kranenburg, Sales Director at Tangram. “Every design choice had to answer a single question: Will this environment support and inspire learning?”

Highlights include flexible seating zones for both single and group study work; an AV and digital media lab; and the use of warm colors and bold palettes to evoke the campus’ coastal surroundings.

Photo courtesy of Tangram Interiors

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Education Design Showcase Awards

    Spaces4Learning has opened submissions for the 2026 Education Design Showcase! The awards program launched in 1999 with the goal of celebrating innovative, practical solutions in the planning, design, and construction of K–12 and higher-education facilities. EDS recognizes new developments that help achieve optimal learning environments, as well as the architecture firms that brought the ideas to life.

  • South Texas K–12 District Debuts Region’s First Electric Bus Fleet

    The Valley View Independent School District in Pharr, Texas, recently announced a partnership with Highland Electric Fleets to launch the district’s—and the region’s—first fleet of all-electric school buses, according to a news release.

  • Round Rock ISD Completes New Early College High School

    Round Rock ISD near Austin, Texas, recently announced that construction is complete on a new, 46,500-square-foot campus for Early College High School, according to a news release. The new facility will allow the school’s students and staff to move from portables into a permanent building and increase its enrollment to 500.

  • Countway Library at Harvard Medical School

    From Shadows to Sanctuary: The Transformation of Light at Countway Library

    The renovation of Countway Library at Harvard Medical School demonstrates how biophilic design and advanced lighting strategies transformed a formerly dark, insular space into a vibrant, welcoming hub that supports wellness, learning, and community engagement.

Digital Edition