Located in the El Cerritos community of San Diego, near the corner of 54th St. and El Cajon Blvd., Iftin Charter School and SDUSD’s Student Services program share a 6.5 acre site at the former Jackson Elementary School campus. This site has several constraints such as that it is ‘L’-shaped and has a very active commercial property adjacent to the Iftin campus as well as a below-average amount of street frontage. Overcoming such challenges was only achieved with the continuous dialogue between both end-user parties. Each group’s requirements were addressed and implemented in the campus’ design in addition to paying attention to the site’s inherent characteristics of solar exposure, prevalent winds, site elevation change, and location atop a hill with views to the South and West. The design concept driving the project was the sense of “discovery”. A young student’s discovery of the buildings’ color, form, and diverse material as well as the progression through the site, add up to having the student’s mind work to understand all the information rushing through their mind. As the student grows and advances in grades, the discovery that s/he encounters are grander, beyond the obvious colors and shapes that identify the buildings, but a connection of a mathematical sequence to a building element or understanding a concept through a connection made by a line of sight across the campus. Each program’s part of the site, adheres to their campus’ needs and is scaled appropriately. Both offer play areas and outdoor instructional learning opportunities.
