When two forward-thinking public agencies pull together their resources, in this case Franklin McKinley School District having the money and the City of San Jose owning the land, magic happens. The school district, using funds from a locally funded bond, built a new elementary school that doubles up as a community center, on a partially developed public park in an underserved lower-income neighborhood in San Jose.

Many challenges faced the design team on this unique project? The site is small hill next to a freeway off-ramp, covered with natural asbestos-containing soils. Furthermore, the building footprint cannot exceed 0.56 acres of land, due to a City’s statutory requirement.

The solution involves a highly compact two-story structure with long northern and southern exposures. The short end of the building faces the freeway off-ramp to minimize noise. The building wraps around an open courtyard, which is not included in the city-imposed footprint limit. The courtyard is in effect an extension of the building, without violating the very restrictive floor area limit. The multi use room and the library media center have separate accesses for the school and for after-hour community use. A classroom is also designed for exclusive community use, although the entire school is open to the community after-hours.