Eastside High School, Antelope Valley Union High School District
April 1, 2008
Eastside High School of the Antelope Valley Union High School District (AVUHSD) will open its doors to students for the first time in the fall of 2009. As the District’s eighth comprehensive high school, Eastside will embrace a curriculum that is designed to provide students with the confidence, competence, and information needed to make educated choices for the future. The curriculum will place a heavy focus on academics, communication, technology, critical thinking, and strength of character.
A collaborative process involving faculty, District staff, parents, students, community members, and NTD Architecture designers was initiated prior to the start of design to determine the shared vision for the new school. Three concepts emerged from this process, including collaboration, flexibility/adaptability, and sustainable design. Each of these concepts plays out as a key factor in the design of the new school.
Collaboration
Collaboration among students and teachers is inspired through design by the layout of both interior and exterior spaces. A large central quad with courtyard spaces and lunch shelters will encourage socialization among students during breaks. Gathering spaces outside of classrooms have also been designed for this purpose. Additionally, in an effort to adhere to a campus model that is developed around academies, teacher collaboration spaces have been decentralized to more closely relate to their teaching spaces.
Flexibility/Adaptability
With the realization that programs tend to change with instructors, it was decided that eleven “Black Box” labs would be developed. Much like retail spaces in malls, these labs will provide basic infrastructure but can be easily customized and adapted with program changes. Large open spaces can be separated by partitions if needed and reworked to fit the current program. This solution will prevent the school from wasting money on programs that go extinct after only a short time.
Sustainable Design
Eastside High School is designed to coincide with Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) criteria for sustainability, and the ultimate design will reflect a substantial savings over Title 24, utilizing a Central Plant. A building orientation spanning from east to west will serve as a natural barrier to the wind and will provide a more controlled environment on the campus. This orientation will also take advantage of natural daylighting, which will be enhanced through an insulated skylight system, clerestory monitors, and light wells. The new school’s buildings will offer optimal indoor air quality, thermal comfort with individual air temperature controls, and an acoustically sound environment. Additional factors that contribute to the sustainable design include green storage and compost, water conservation, high insulation values, a cool roof system, high performance glazing, and high efficiency lighting.
Eastside High School is masterplanned to accommodate a student body of 3,500. The 349,529 SF school will sit on a 60-acre lot and will house 121 teaching stations. NTD Architecture’s Education Funding Services Department assisted the District with obtaining $43 M in funding from the State of California, saving the District 33% of the cost needed to build the $130 M school.
When complete, the design of Eastside High School will contribute to the school’s curriculum by providing comfortable classrooms for academic learning and collaborative spaces to encourage student communication and character development. The new high school will not only serve as an outstanding facility for its users, it will also be friendly to the environment. And a flexible design will keep the school thriving through generations of programs, students, and teachers alike.
The District originally bid the construction of the Eastside High School main campus as one complete package. Numerous contractors were solicited in an effort to assure competitive bidding, but only one construction firm bid on the project, a large company located in Sylmar. It is very likely the project was too large for most school construction contractors to secure bonds and bid the project. The single bid received was well over the project estimate and exceeded the District’s resources for the project. The Board of Trustees rejected the bid in 2006 and the project was split into smaller general contracts with the objective to start building with the resources available, maintain the current design, attract additional bidders, and promote competitive bidding. There are currently nine different general contracts in place for the main campus alone, and it is expected to reach 11 or 12 before project completion. Due to the division of the work, the District has had to provide additional management in the field to assure proper coordination between all contractors. The District has hired three full time independent individual contractors to work as Project Managers under the direction of the District. The project is expected to come well under the original single bid received in 2006.
Publications
- NTD Architecture Acquires HBFL Architects, Strengthens Presence in California’s Central Coast July 26, 2010
- Murrieta Mesa High School, CASH School Profile January 2010 January 1, 2010
- Final Steel Beam on New San Bernardino Valley College Building Makes 260 Tons August 11, 2009
- Lancaster’s Newest Comprehensive High School Ready for Students August 11, 2009
- Construction Comes to a Close on Murrieta’s Newest High School July 29, 2009