Bay Farm
Elementary School

Alameda Unified School District
Alameda, California

New School
l,450 students
Grades K-5
Cost $5,100,000
Occupied 1993

Bay Farm Elementary School is located on a flat, eight acre site, surrounded on three sides by single-family residences, and adjoined by a five acre city park. Its design was developed over several months in a series of meetings with administrators, faculty members, and members of the community. The low-scale, residential character of the school's perimeter responds to community concerns, while the central quadrangles uses warmer colors and more formal imagery to suggest a strong school identity. The simplicity of the buildings belies the fact that buried thirty feet beneath the school site are three World War II battleship hulls. Originally placed on the site as a breakwater, they were filled over with bay sand in the early 1960's. An extensive pile and grade beam foundation system had to be considered in the budgeting and design of the buildings. The heart and architectural focus of the school is the media center. Its entry is marked by a red plaster and glass block wall which projects into the school's central quadrangle. With the administration building, the media center defines the major entry to the campus. The remaining three sides of the quadrangle are bounded by the classroom buildings reflecting three different grade groupings. At the center of each of the three classroom buildings is a courtyard that is intended for controlled outdoor group instruction.