Designing a New Model School for “Each and Every”

San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) engaged Multistudio to consider the full breadth of opportunity available to its students, families, teachers, and staff in the development of a new school on a 2.5-acre parcel of land in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. The Mission Bay School was identified as a pioneering project for SFUSD to address equity, social justice and a model for a long-range pedagogical transition to more flexible project-based learning across its schools. Our role was leading the visioning and programming, followed by providing bridging documentation in the design-build process. Given the urban and challenging site parameters, the 106,000 square foot school is a mid-rise, four (4) story design that responds to the local environment. The project targets an EUI (Energy Use Index) equal to 20 and is an all-electric, highly energy efficient campus.

Our planning and design process integrated Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to remove educational barriers and serve “each and every” student in alignment with SFUSD’s “Graduate Profile”. Through engagement with District stakeholders and the community, we developed creative ideas for achieving synergies between the three (3) program elements: 1) TK-5 Elementary School (and Preschool); 2) Linked Learning Hub for high school students; and 3) Professional/Adult Learning. Our design process focuses on increasing programmatic richness, spatial efficiency, and engagement potential with the wider community. The mission-forward emphasis of this new school model is intended to prepare “each and every” student to be active in their authorship in both the future of San Francisco and 21st Century global citizenry.