Irvine’s New Cadence Park School is District’s Fourth K-8 Campus

The new $44-million Cadence Park School, in Irvine, is the Irvine Unified School District’s (IUSD) 40th school and fourth K-8 campus. The art deco-inspired school was built to accommodate the growth of Orange County’s Great Park neighborhoods and has the capacity to serve up to 1,000 students. The 94,000-square-foot campus encompasses eight buildings on 13 acres and includes a gymnasium with an attached fitness lab as well as outdoor collaboration spaces for all grade levels. Classrooms for grades one through five will have direct access to interior collaboration spaces, and grades six through eight will have access to a quad with an outdoor amphitheater, small group instruction areas, space for outdoor science activities and a garden.

Cadence Park School

The school features an innovation lab with a maker’s space, video production room and flexible learning space with a roll-up door to accommodate a variety of lesson types. A library with a story-telling space will double as a small group work area. C.W. Driver Companies, a premier builder serving California since 1919, worked alongside PJHM Architects on the project.

“We have a long history partnering with IUSD on the construction of its elementary, middle and high school campuses, and are honored to once again work with a school district that is consistently ranked no. 1 in Orange County,” said Jonathan Keene, senior project manager at C.W. Driver Companies. “This new campus will provide a state-of-the-art facility for the Great Park Neighborhoods’ growing population and add to IUSD’s impressive roster of forward-thinking learning environments.”

Featured

  • Texas Recruitment

    Texas Recruitment

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Recruitment has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of Renovation.

  • Porter Family Center

    Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • A digital silhouette works at a computer, immersed in a glowing, interconnected world

    How Will AI Transform Learning Space Design?

    For years, higher education has designed learning spaces around technology as a tool for display, capture, collaboration, and connectivity. AI changes that equation.

  • USC Launches Major AI Initiative After $200M Gift

    The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif., recently announced that it has launched a “transformational” new AI initiative thanks to a $200M gift, according to a news release. The project will leverage AI toward breakthroughs and innovations in subjects like the health sciences, business, security, and the arts.