Project-in-Design

Award of Honor

Valley Region Elementary School #6

Los Angeles Unified School District

MVE Institutional, Inc.

The site is surrounded by very diverse building types, including two and three story multi-family residences, single-family homes, a church, and a park, making the integration of the campus into the surrounding context a unique challenge.  The classroom building was designed to be space-efficient on the small site, but has been articulated by learning courtyards to create multiple small learning communities and to offer flexible outdoor teaching and learning space.  The final design solution places the classroom building adjacent to the existing two-story and three-story apartment buildings at the eastern edge of the site and away from the single-story, single-family homes to the west.  This serves to group the multi-story massing together to provide a cohesive sense of scale, allowing the classroom building to act as a buffer between the nearby apartments and playground.

Building green was one of the primary goals of the assignment.  The project will be CHPs certified, and has taken advantage of the Savings By Design program.  The classrooms have been designed to maximize natural light and ventilation into the classroom. Building materials were chosen to be both durable and sustainable while being sensitive to the project budget.   The design for the Valley Region Elementary School responds to the unique challenges of a small-sized site and a varied context through an efficient layout which is sensitive to the needs of the students, school district, the environment, and the community.

Jurors said, “The buildings have very playful elements of color, form and rhythm incorporated directly into the building very much so in keeping with an elementary school while being child-like, but not being childish. For a confined site, the playfields and playground areas were maximized to provide the greatest benefits to the students. They’ve done an excellent job of breaking up the massing of a multi-story building and bringing the scale down to its occupants who are small children.  It’s a small site that has been developed into a really good learning environment for students.  Having parking underground and leaving the surface free for use of the children is wonderful!”