Harley Ellis Devereau

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Size: 44-acre campus

Services: Architectural, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Sustainable Design Services

Project Description: Project Size: The total project includes plans for the renovation and expansion of academic buildings, outdoor recreation and commons, parking and infrastructure for a 44 acre campus serving approximately 2,300 students. Supported by a local bond measure, the $49M construction budget allows for a new 60,000 s.f. three story Math and Science Building, a new 300 seat multi-purpose building and approximately 180,000 s.f. of renovation, modernization and infill projects. The original mandate was to tear down many existing classroom buildings at the heart of the campus and replace them with two two-story buildings. After analyzing the state of the existing facilities and exploring potential alternate sites for new expansion, our team recommended maintaining and renovating many of the original classrooms and building a new science / math building on an existing parking lot. As a result, our client is able to build a new building as a first phase, while maintaining occupation of all existing buildings. Existing buildings with fundamentally good bones in terms of orientation, day lghting and potentially enhanced natural ventilation are being rejuvenated. The new Math Science Building is a three story building clad in multi-colored cement fiberboard panels and built into the hillside to minimize massing and provide a sympathetic complement to other newer buildings ringing the perimeter of the campus. An anchor at the northeast corner of the site, it becomes a community landmark and emblem of the revitalization of the campus. At the same time, consolidation of the campus has allowed the restructuring of the athletic fields to the north and west, used jointly be the school and the larger community. The rational, balanced reconstruction of the campus has also allowed the removal of some older portable classroom buildings as well as a former administration building at the center of the campus. This has allowed us to create a new student commons – an oasis of green in the heart of academic buildings to create a new communal campus focus.

Client: Manhattan Beach Unified School District