Cabot Yerxa Elementary School

Desert Hot Springs, CA.

NEW CONSTRUCTION/ NEW CAMPUS

This new elementary school campus was designed to meet the expanding needs of the District and was thus developed on a new site. The campus is designed to accommodate a student body of approximately 830, K-5 students. Situated on a steep slope the campus steps down the slope to open up dramatic views of the valley below as well as physically separate the elementary students from the kindergarten students.

The classroom buildings area arranged in a radial pattern, concentric to the administration building and central plaza in order to allow for visual control of the campus. All of the classroom buildings themselves are designed with clerestory windows to take advantage of the North light for day-lighting opportunities.

The library and multi-purpose spaces are designed with large, North-facing glazing to allow for energy savings in lighting. The architecture itself is designed to evoke the modernist aesthetic that is common in Palm Springs and its surrounding areas and the colors carefully chosen to blend in with the desert context.

Completed: 2009
Project Cost: $27,000,000