The Parkside Intermediate School State-of-the-Art Campus was an unusual project, it presented many unique challenges. San Bruno School District is one of the last local school districts to have a 7-8 grade intermediate school, as opposed to the traditional 6-8 grade middle school. The district undertook an extensive planning and analysis process, and identified that the school was located in a community with declining enrollment. The district realized that in order to stay competitive with neighboring districts they would have to become a “state-of-the-art” campus that offered a better education than their competitors. When Persinger Architects was hired several challenges quickly became apparent.

The first challenge was bringing 300 additional students to the campus and making these new students fit comfortably. This would mean that the existing cafeteria would have to serve 300 additional lunches; the gymnasium would have to hold 300 additional students for P.E. class, etc. Therefore, the second challenge meant redesigning the entire campus to accommodate the additional students.

The third challenge was how to create a “state-of-the-art” campus. The question we asked ourselves was what does a “state-of-the-art” school mean and what are we trying to accomplish with this new construction? Persinger Architects looked at this challenge and concluded that this was an opportunity to not only bring in these additional students, but also completely redesign the neglected campus. The campus needed to say that their facilities are the best, the latest, and most importantly show that they offer the best education available. One of the largest problems facing public schools now is that parents only see the neglected facilities and do not see the actual quality of the staff. The number of students at public schools is dwindling because private schools have more money to put into facilities. Therefore, parents believe their children will receive a better education at a private school. Changing this misconception was just one of the many design challenges we faced one this project.

In addition to the design challenges we faced there were two significant construction challenges. The first was we had an extremely tight budget, and the second was an even tighter timeline. Architects often spend years planning, design, preparing construction documents, and receiving permits. For this project, however, we didn’t have years, or even a year, we had a few months. Persinger Architects relatively small size allowed us to move quickly in response to these challenges. This meant that literally the day we were hired we were on the phone with the school’s principle, starting the design and planning process.

With such a tight timeline Persinger Architects continued working with the principle even while she worked in Alaska for the summer. We used phone, email, and skype to discuss design concepts and decide our course of action. We maximized use of web tools, so we could have long distance design conversations. This was necessary because our tight timeline did not allow us to have the benefit of sitting everyone down in the same room and discussing options and preferences.

The district wanted the new construction to have the feeling of an old prep school, classic but simple. The existing school had the feeling of an overgrown rose bush with chaotic interwoven classroom wings. We chose to tear down the center of the school and build to new wings around a central courtyard. This courtyard became the heart of the school, with beautiful landscaping the courtyard not adds an aesthetic quality to the campus, but also gives them the space they dreamed of. Designed to accommodate graduating ceremonies the courtyard gives the space a unified feel.

The two new wings added to modern yet classical touches to the campus. Large detailed parapets and simple columns give the buildings the elegant feel the district wanted. A two-story wing was added to the western edge of the courtyard, while a single story wing was added to the eastern edge. Both wings are well lit from natural daylight and feature central hallways to protect the students from the mild, but often cold, wet, and windy weather common to San Bruno. The rooms also feature high ceilings and large windows to continue the classic prep school aesthetics.

The new buildings are constructed around a custom modular frame, which allows the project to meet the budgetary, and timeline challenges faced. A custom designed stained floor, in the central hallways provides a cheap, beautiful, and durable flooring surface for buildings with such high levels of traffic. The single story wing was constructed in just one summer and opened in time for the start of school, allowing for the campus to remain open all year with minimal construction impact.

Even with so many challenges face, design and construction based, Parkside Intermediate School has received its “state-of-the-art” renovation, allowing it to compete with any neighboring schools. The campus now says Parkside Intermediate School offers the best education available.