Calvary Christian School
Client: Calvary Christian School
Scope: New Construction
Size: 10,000 SF Maker Space & Theater Building, 800 SF Cafeteria, 30,000 SF Outdoor Lunch & Play Area
Completion: In Progress
Project Manager: Richard Berliner, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, ALEP
Berliner began work on a new maker building, lunch facility, and playground area at Calvary Christian School with a visioning session to determine the needs of the school.
Berliner worked with the school to maximize what could be programmed into the theater/multi-purpose building on a challenging hillside site. Berliner presented three initial concepts - a traditional option with a large theater and storage room, a more contemporary version that created indoor/outdoor spaces and connected to the hillside behind the building, and an option showing the maximum size the building would be allowed to be built at. Calvary Christian eventually chose to combine the first two options, keeping their campus architectural vocabulary, while internally filling the space with a 200 seat theater at the base, flexible classrooms in the middle, and a maker building on top. The split level floor plan connects to both the wakway at the entry level and the parking 30 feet above.
The solution allowed the school to incorporate multiple types of spaces within a minimal footprint.
In addition to the new maker building / theater, Calvary sought to streamline their lunch procedure, expand the areas where students eat, and convert an underutilized asphalt parking area into a planted playground for all ages. The lunch area revitalization includes terraced decking for middle school dining, space analysis of existing dining focused on K-5, and an 800 sf enclosed servery which serves dual purpose, a place where lunches are distributed and lockable outdoor storage.
The parking lot mentioned is encircled by classrooms and administration. Reviewing the master plan and after a full parking and traffic analysis, the centrality and integration of the area within the campus makes the transformation to a useable student space an obvious next step. In conjunction with AHBE and at the direction of the Calvary team, what was once an asphalt expanse is turned into a sport court play area with basketball court, foursquare, edge planting, tables and huts for art, and graduated climbing play.
