Horace Mann School
San Jose, Calif.
Moore Ruble Yudell Architects

Moore Ruble Yudell Architects? small urban campus revives a downtown area and promises opportunity for local families

© John Edward Linden

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By John King

A school has occupied the corner of Sixth and East Santa Clara Streets in downtown San Jose since 1864, but after a 1909 schoolhouse was demolished in the 1970s, students were consigned to portables. As part of a lawsuit involving desegregation, a local judge ruled that this constituted substandard conditions for the mostly lower-income students, creating the opportunity for design architects Moore Ruble Yudell (MRY) and executive architect BFGC to craft a miniature campus with a strong urban feel.

From the start, public officials wanted more than simply an educational facility for as many as 700 children. The school site is across the street from where builders are erecting a new City Hall designed by Richard Meier, FAIA, so a reborn Horace Mann School sends the message that San Jose’s push to revive downtown involves more than civic monuments.

Neighborhood residents wanted meeting rooms and park space as well as a school for their children. Sentimental attachments entered in, with many participants at community charrettes eager to save the site’s two oldest trees. For school officials, security was an obvious issue. Teachers asked for small spaces connected to their classrooms where they could work with students requiring special attention. City officials saw the school playing a role as a community center at nights and on weekends.

For their part—as might be expected from a team led by a firm that counts early Postmodernist Charles Moore as one of its founders—the architects wanted to make sure that what got built was a fun place to be. "Children deserve a comfortable place," says MRY senior associate James Mary O’Connor. "We wanted to create the opportunity for wonder and exploration."

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Location:
San Jose, Calif.

Gross square footage:
86, 187 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$21 Million

Owner:
San Jose Unified School District
Adam Escoto, Principal

Design Architect:
Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners
903 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405
T: 310.450.1400
F: 310.450.1403
www.moorerubleyudell.com