South Los Angeles High is a progressive, public charter high school known for its collaborative, curriculum and strong community connection. This building and addition to the 1950’s campus creates a flexible teaching environment that supports significant parental involvement and puts student life at the center of the school and unites the campus community.  Designed on an extremely limited budget and aggressive schedule, simple cost effective gestures were deployed in the use of cladding, fenestration, color and transparency to create a memorable sense of richness, providing a bright moment in an extremely tough inner city community.

Unlike most school that are enclosed by a property line security fence, the South Los Angeles High School building is surrounded by a 20 foot high perforated bullet resistant metal walls that are integrated into the building design.  This creates light filled courtyards for outside activity that is connected directly to classroom activities.  This arrangement of courtyard design allows the building to breathe fresh air and daylight while providing a safe and secure environment for leaning and social engagement. Open-air light-filled halls and classrooms, as well as the building transparency, express the school’s values and provide a healthy, sustainable learning environment.  The building form and primary courtyard are formed by a series of required clearances around an oil well abandoned in the late 1970’s, a series of power line and utility easements, height restrictions and zone changes running through the site that constrain the form and size to it’s maximum possible building area envelope.