Restored Art Deco facades

Restored Art Deco lobby

New drinking fountains

Bringing daylight into the multipurpose room

Restored art deco auditorium

Gym restoration

Middle school science classroom

Art classroom

Concrete shear walls with prefabricated steel collector beams

For the seismic upgrade design, we developed an innovative design solution that saved on-site construction time and allowed us to preserve the character of this art deco school building. Our design called for a mix of new concrete shear walls with pre-fabricated steel collector beams. Another innovation was designing the shear walls so they could use existing interior walls as formwork, which saved forming cost and preserved much of the original detail at lobbies, auditorium and classroom interiors.

James Lick Middle School

San Francisco USD

The design to modernize this 1932 Art Deco middle school campus addressed educational and facilities needs of the campus.

The lowest level of the four-story classroom wing included outmoded vocational training areas, which we converted to a STEAM center including new science and art classrooms, music and practice areas, and a dance studio.

The school is located on a sloping site in an urban location, and our design needed to provide a new accessible path through two multi-story buildings connecting to eleven distinct levels. A special challenge was to minimize the impact of new concrete shear walls on the existing school.

The rest of the school received a major overhaul, including new more efficient administration and counseling areas, a cafeteria renovation bringing in natural light, a new drama classroom, and modernized performing arts auditorium. Other improvements included new energy-saving windows; power, lighting and data infrastructure; toilet room and plumbing replacement, and new ceilings for future flexibility.

Other important elements of the work include seismic strengthening, fire protection sprinklers and fire alarm upgrade.