Project: Crossroads School Arts and Athletics Facility, 2019

Location: Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Lead Architect: Poonam Sharma, LOC Architects

Team: Poonam Sharma, Tessa Forde

Photographs: Nico Marques

 

This project involved the conversion of an old aircraft part manufacturing warehouse in western Los Angeles into a high school Arts and Athletics hub featuring a small gymnasium, graphics and design classrooms, a ceramics studio, a darkroom and film photography classroom and several music studios.

 

The variety and complexity of program was explored through materiality - the classroom types 'zoned' by their material language. Drywall and plywood blocks of varying heights intersect eachother and a full-height sloped polycarbonate wall that demarcates the space of the athletics hall. The installation of these classroom blocks is celebratory of the existing warehouse typology, with the timber ceiling and truss system, and the concrete walls and floors restored and left exposed where possible. 

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