The Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts is the showpiece high school for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). As a performing and visual arts high school, the seven-building, 10-acre campus houses a 927-seat professional concert hall with a Broadway-sized proscenium stage, orchestra pit, and fully equipped sound and lighting booths. The school also features a 250-seat black box theatre, an outdoor amphitheater, a professional scene shop, photography and broadcast studios, multiple science and computer labs, specialized spaces equipped for art, music, and theatre classes, and four dance studios.

The project achieved 46 points on LAUSD’s Collaborative for High-Performance Schools (CHPS) scorecard, the highest project the district had scored to that date. The CHPS program is equivalent to USGBC’s LEED program, but it is California-based, specifically for K-12 buildings. High-performance schools are designed and constructed to maximize the use/reuse of recycled and recyclable/renewable materials, using practices that minimize waste during construction and are operated in a way that reduces waste going to landfills. 

The artistic focus for the school is on music, dance, performing arts and visual arts. The design is aesthetically modern reflecting the motif of the school, with striking curved walls, curtain walls, stainless steel exterior metal-panel cladding, and asymmetrical features, creating a highly complex project.

PCL executed the complexity of this modern design. The team utilized virtual construction to coordinate the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems across and within the buildings as well as to coordinate the structural steel, curtain wall and cladding, as much of the unique paneling for the buildings required custom installation. PCL also used virtual construction to coordinate the structural steel, curtain wall, and cladding on this project. 3-D modeling proved to be a great asset in coordinating the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in the buildings, ensuring the project was completed on-schedule.

A major challenge arose when skeletal remains from an old cemetery were found on-site posing a six-week delay in the schedule, but the threat was mitigated by opting to start the foundations in an alternate sequence. Using virtual construction and resequencing the schedule enabled PCL to complete the project on time despite the delays. 

This crown jewel of the LAUSD system is an example of how PCL can execute even the most complex projects and deliver lasting value for public education clients in Southern California.