The Sequoia Union High School District was interested in creating space for a new teaching focus that centered around career technology education. The district will construct new buildings across its many campuses to focus on areas of teaching that directly relate to career education such as culinary arts, and theater and sound production. The new building on the Menlo-Atherton campus will focus on teaching digital and media arts, and will achieve LEED Gold Certification.
The existing Menlo-Atherton campus had little room to accommodate a new building. CAW studied various site options, finally settling on a site at the end of a visual corridor that links the facility with the new Performing Arts Center and the main Library. The building will also serve as a new gateway entrance into the existing football stadium. Visitors will pass under the triumphal archway that will be created by pulling the building mass apart. This will allow people to flow through the building instead of around it, while a new gallery space above will display student work.
