Down, Not Out
Pfau Architecture crafts a clever design for an urban school running out of
room.
By Alan E. Rapp
The Metropolis Observed
November 2003
After the board of trustees of San Francisco's Lick-Wilmerding High School
committed to a crucial campus expansion plan in 2000, it decided to do what
few learning institutions of its kind can: open the project up to an invited
competition. A private college-prep school with emphasis on architecture,
design, and technical arts, Lick (for short) saw an opportunity to let the
students participate in the selection of the winning design and peer into
the construction process.
To maximize student involvement, five competing firms not only
pitched the competition jury--made up of five architects, the headmaster,
an alumnus, a trustee, and a student--but also made assembly presentations
to the student body. Their models were displayed in the library, and students
voted through ballots or e-mail (though the board had the final say).
"Because all our students take drafting and design, and many take architecture,
they were very pleased to be included in the competition process,"
headmaster Al Adams says. "They took it seriously, and their input
was weighed equally seriously."
The school had outgrown its facilities and needed a modern shop, expanded
cafeteria, and additional seating for its performance hall. But this already
cramped urban campus had little vacant space left for the project. The site
was almost a given; it was assumed that the expansion would build either
on the last remaining expanse of lawn or on the campus perimeter, either
option choking off the view of the hilly neighborhood to the east. Local
firm Pfau Architecture furnished the one option that preserved both
the grass and the vista. "The vote was overwhelmingly for Pfau,"
design instructor Goranka Poljak-Hoy says. "The other firms pretty
much did what we asked them to do. This was the firm that opened new
horizons."
The Pfau design took advantage of the sloped site and proposed building
down rather than out. By excavating underneath the last patch of green,
and situating the machine and electronics shops around a courtyard, the
architects created space for the new technology and design center, with
access from both levels, without impinging on the precious space or panorama.
"It's always been nice just to have that open view," junior Alex
Bodell says. "To have a building there would have been like a military
camp." The cafeteria and student center is an extension of an existing
classroom building that overlooks the shop complex. (The previous cafeteria
was so small that students sat and ate in the hallways.) The airy 6,000-square-foot
hall has brought a relief that is visible in the faces of the students who
lounged and gossiped around tables there on the first day of school
in September.
That day's opening ceremonies, complete with noisy Chinese lion dancers,
allowed students and faculty their first glimpse at the finished
project. Headmaster Adams surveyed the courtyard at the center of the shop
core. "I knew from the beginning that it was going to be really beautiful
and really functional," he said, reflecting a characteristic opinion
that day. "But I had no idea that it would integrate this campus the
way it does." |
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By building into the side of a hill (above), Pfau Architecture's high school
expansion--which includes a new cafeteria (below)--avoids disrupting the vista
from above (bottom). |
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