The new south campus high school is the first new stand-alone academic building of the School District since construction of the central campus in 1970. The new building was constructed to accommodate the rapid increase in student population and changing demographics of the School District.
As designed, the 280,000-square-foot building has a student capacity of 2,000 and initially is being used as a freshman-sophomore center. As population growth continues, additional components, such as a field house, music center, auditorium, and driver’s education will be added to transition the building into a stand-alone four-year high school. STR developed a master plan for the ultimate build-out of the entire campus.
To preserve as much green on the 67-acre parcel, the building’s academic wing was designed as a 3-story structure, focused on a double-height learning center. 78 classrooms and 12 science lecture labs are housed in the academic wing. Pubic spaces, such as the cafeteria, gymnasiums and administrative offices are located at grade.
Natural light played an important part in the genesis of the building. Classrooms were designed with large windows. Exit and interconnecting stairs include either skylights or curtainwall glazing. The cafeteria dining space is illuminated with a glass clerestory. Both the competition gym and the auxiliary gym admit diffused light through translucent clerestory panels.
