Millennium School

In San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood, a historic 1919 autobody shop will be given new life as the city’s only independent middle school. Underneath a skylit sawtooth roof, a fluid openness of rooms will allow for maximum flexibility and adaptability of learning. Classes can move freely according to activity or daylight or mood. Rooms themselves will be designated by their proportions rather than their use, with each capable of hosting a variety of uses. Rolling glass doors will allow spaces to instantly expand or contract as needed. Exterior boarded-up walls will be peeled away, and together with large skylights, will lend maximum daylight to the interior. Natural ventilation and the thermal mass of the existing slab will help to passively cool the building.

New interventions, such as substantial seismic and MEP upgrades, will be carefully considered to disappear from view. An existing parking area will also be transformed into a play yard and garden. In total, a restrained palette of materials and clear, day-lit spaces will furnish a school that can simply exist well and invite a richness of learning and use.