PROJECT

Overview

The community of Rancho Mirage looks forward to the addition of a K-8 campus to complete the education opportunities that were started with the building of Rancho Mirage High School.  The new K-8 school is designed with a focus on collaborative educational experiences and a curriculum designed to matriculate into the existing programs at RMHS.

The traditional building elements that are prevalent in desert architecture are reinterpreted into a modern design solution that carries on the rich tradition of Modern design in the Coachella Valley.  Careful attention has been paid to building orientation, solar and wind exposure to create an environment that is suitable to the local climate while fully supporting the educational goals of the district for a truly unique student experience.

The design solution creates a compact, organized campus that includes a Multi-Purpose, Performance space, a gym, core classroom, STEAM lab spaces, a reinterpreted Library, and a kindergarten complex with shaded playground. Throughout the campus, all spaces are considered for their educational opportunities. Numerous spatial opportunities exist for students to engage creatively outside the classroom for an extended education experience that exceeds class time.

Details

Location: Rancho Mirage, California

District: Palm Springs Unified School District

Size: 107,000 SF, 24 Acre Site

Cost: $45M

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1
1
1
Student Drop Off
2
Bus Drop Off
3
Maker Space / Library
4
Academic Cluster
5
Academic Cluster
6
Academic Cluster
7
Gymnasium
8
Multi-Purpose Room
9
Food Service
10
Service Yard
11
Administration
12
Kindergarten

Crafting a Desert Campus

MASSING & EFFICIENCY

ACADEMIC CLUSTERS

COURTYARDS

COLLABORATION SPACES

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

FINAL MASSING

Mountains, Wind & Sand

The site’s desert environment includes strong winds, sand, and sun.

To provide comfortable outdoor socialization spaces, our team modeled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) wind analysis to insure that gathering spaces would not be overwhelmed by the high speed prevailing winds.

Academic Urban Street Scapes

The diagrams shown here expand concepts outlined in the Urban Street Design Guide published by the National Association of City Transportation Officials. The design translates the street zones and public spaces into academic and socialization spaces. Stacking two “street scapes” provides sun protection and maximizes outdoor comfort.

The Palm Springs Unified School District was expressed a desire for Collaborative Educational Spaces, yet had little additional budget for interior, conditioned spaces. In response to this challenge, the design team fashioned outdoor “urban street-scapes” to facilitate socialization and collaborative learning.

Capitalizing on this interior shading, the design harvests transparency and natural light from within the protected interior campus courtyard. Exterior perimeter windows are allowed to be limited in size, providing only vision to the outdoor environment (not natural light), limiting the effects of heat gain and glare from the adjacent desert sand.

Clusters, Scale, & Flexibility

To address the rapidly changing needs of educational environments, academic spaces have been organized into clusters. These clusters allow the opportunity to equip classrooms with a variable range of spaces to accommodate multiple scales of instruction and collaboration.