By SCN Staff
IRVINE, Calif.鈥擫PA recently won an Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects (national) Educational Facility Design Awards for the design of Tarbut V鈥橳orah鈥檚 expansion. Only six projects in the country received this recognition.
Completed in 2018, this project was an effort to modernize the campus and re-establish the school鈥檚 prominence in Irvine, Calif. The total cost for lower school construction and upper school STEAM building was $25 million.
The campus expansion was part of a new strategic plan developed by the school鈥檚 trustees to grow the student body and re-establish Tarbut V鈥橳orah as a premier independent school. LPA worked closely with the school鈥檚 administration and community to co-develop a program that responds to the school鈥檚 vision of future-ready learning environments.
The expansion of the campus included the addition of three new buildings鈥攁 maker building, a STEAM building, and a fitness building, in addition to outdoor learning environments. LPA鈥檚 engineers, designers and landscape architects worked with school leaders and students to develop spaces that address the social and emotional aspects of students, as well as the academic.
The school鈥檚 flexible learning environments allow for hands-on, project-based learning, indoors and out. Classrooms with glass walls open to the expansive views of the scenic Southern California community. A quad adjacent to the new buildings includes small group pods, an amphitheater and stage, evening performance lighting, a lunch terrace, an 18-foot-long concrete work bench table and a roof top huddle deck.
DPR Construction was the general contractor on this impressive project.