Green Dot E. 27th Street Charter High Schools

Promise: This 77,000 square foot project involves the transformation of two former manufacturing warehouses into a pair of high schools for the progressive Green Dot Charter School Organization. Located on the edge of a single family residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles (formerly known as South Central), these new facilities offer what has been unattainable in this historically underprivileged part of the Los Angeles - namely, the promise for a better future in the form of committed educators, effective teaching methods, and inspiring, uplifting environments.

Identity and Materials: Limited to 500 students, each school has its own separate administration, as well as its own architectural identity. Inhabiting the original brick warehouse, the school called “Animo Justice” utilizes warm, red and yellow hues and is entered from the south side of the shared exterior entry courtyard. In contrast, “Animo Ralph Bunche,” the school housed in the tilt-up concrete structure, uses a cooler, blue and green palette, and is accessed via a dramatic steel stair and second floor roof deck on the north side of the courtyard.

Shared spaces: To accommodate the required floor area for two schools, as well as much needed exterior space, a second floor has been inserted into the higher, concrete building. While each school has its own circulation system, these have been designed to give independent access to a shared gym and library situated near the center of the combined facility.

Natural Light and Sustainability: Skylights are used extensively to assure that each classroom has access to natural light and a view of the sky. In some places, they provide light to the first floor spaces through shafts that run through the second floor. The project is the first LEED-certified charter school facility in Los Angeles.