Drew College Preparatory School
San Francisco
SMWM

SMWM replaces a hodgepodge private-school campus with an elegant new building in a distinctly urban setting

© Ethan Kaplan

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By Lisa Findley

Since 1908, the Drew School, a private high school in San Francisco, occupied a Victorian house and a motel-like addition wedged onto a corner residential lot. Ten years ago, an energetic new head arrived who expanded enrollment and elevated the quality of the programs. Soon, the deteriorating, makeshift campus was more than an inconvenience—its lack of proper teaching facilities became an obstacle to recruiting the high-quality students the school aspired to attract. In 1998, Drew began fund-raising for a new building on the site of the old structures. Designed by SMWM of San Francisco, the project went into construction in May 2000.

Fitting the new school onto a tight 15,000-square-foot site while leaving room for a possible future expansion was the kind of challenge SMWM had faced before when designing urban schools. The new building is a 20,000-square-foot, three-story, L-shaped structure stacked on top of a 15,000-square-foot concrete parking podium, with a courtyard in the L. Its small, seminar-style classrooms have flexible seating that can be rearranged for group learning or individual study. The building also has state-of-the-art science labs, an appropriately messy art room, support spaces, and a lecture hall. These features are topped by a double-height, light-filled corner library.

The design was also guided by the character of the neighborhood, a mix of Victorian-era single-family houses and several styles of multi-family buildings. A handsome 1890s church occupies a corner across the street. The only source of visual continuity is the use of brick in several facades. SMWM used the long leg of the L to hold the edge of the major street, and mediated the mix of adjacent buildings by introducing subtly vertical breaks in the facade to acknowledge the rhythms of the residential pattern. Brick provides a visual base and anchor for the building; at the same time, the architect introduced contemporary materials—glass, steel, and concrete—and lifted the roof at the corner so that it soars above the street and gives the building an institutional scale.

See the February 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Drew College Preparatory School

Location:
San Francisco

Gross square footage:
63,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$7.75 million

Owner:
Drew College Preparatory School www.drewschool.org

	Architect: SMWM 989 Market Street, Third Floor San Francisco, CA 94103 415/546-0400 415/882-7098 FAX www.smwm.com
Above: Cathy Simon,FAIA, Principal-in-Charge