The Archer School for Girls

Location

Los Angeles, California

Owner

The Archer School for Girls

Architect

Parallax Associates

Project Size

33,000 SF

Awards

2021 | ENR Regional Best Project, K-12 Education

The Archer School for Girls, located in Brentwood, California is an independent college prep school for grades 6-12. One of three schools located in close proximity to Sunset Boulevard, access to the campus required close coordination due to heavy traffic and neighborhood proximity on the north, west and east sides.

The project is in a residential neighborhood and on an occupied campus, making sound levels and positive relations with the surrounding neighbors critical. To combat the issue of noise, the team at MATT set up 16’ and 24’ sound walls around the perimeter of the site.

Site access was another challenge. MATT implemented a traffic control plan along Sunset Boulevard successfully navigating this constraint.

The Archer project consisted of three separate phases, which helped transform Archer into a state-of-the-art campus with upgraded classrooms and technology. Phase one was the construction of a temporary modular village connected to the historic building via a pedestrian bridge over the main driveway.

The second phase was the North Wing renovation. The team demolished and rebuilt the wing while making sure the remainder of the occupied structure remained safe for students. The three-level North Wing has two levels above grade and one below. The wing contains a hydraulic elevator, a full commercial kitchen, classrooms, offices, a dance studio and a courtyard amphitheater. The exterior façade was broken up with two highly visible curtainwall systems and a unique decorative metal geometric design to frame views to the exterior and tie in the exterior plaster design.