Project Overview
The School District of Lodi passed a referendum in 2016 to replace one of their primary schools with a school that is energy efficient, is accessible and meets ADA regulations, and will accommodate future expansion as needed.
The site of the K4–lower elementary school was located on a severely sloped site owned by the District near its other schools. With the location of the nearby Ice Age Trail and a landscape left behind by the last glaciation, the architect proposed a school design that seemed to pass through the landscape and emerge from the hillside. The varying wings, or glacial lobes, of the school overlap each other out of the hillside.
The library and cafeterias are column-free spaces due to a system of transfer girders. The lower-level foundation walls were designed as retaining walls so the site could be retained without having temporary basement wall bracing in the way during construction. Cost-saving adjustments to floor elevations were quickly accounted for by raSmith to still meet the construction document dates.
Project Gallery
