Mira Vista Elementary School

Project: Mira Vista Elementary School
Architect: John Carl Warnecke & Associates
Owner: Richmond Unified School District of Contra Costa County
Landscape Architect: Eckbo, Royston and Williams
Photographers: Rondal Partridge
Date Completed: 1951
Award of Merit, A.I.A., 1954
Award of Honor, Northern CA Chapter, A.I.A., 1953
Design Award, The School Executive’s National Competition for Better School Design, 1951

Sited on a hillside overlooking San Francisco Bay, the school building is actually seven structures tied together by a singe flowing redwood shake roof. It descends om a series of steps down the hillside, effecting a continuous structure growing out of the contours of the land.

Classroom units are arranged like ladder rungs between parallel covered passageways which act as weather shields against strong winds. The classrooms for 850 children are lighted naturally with studio-type skylights.

Although the expense of developing the site was considerable, construction costs were held to a minimum by the use of integral colored blocks which eliminated interior and exterior finishing and three-quarters of the painting normally required. In addition, all exposed surfaces of redwood were left to weather naturally.

In designing Mira Vista School, Mr. Warnecke said “A stunning hillside invited a building that would seem to ride its contours.” The school actually consists of a group of connected buildings spreading upward over the 23-acre hillside but the overall effect is that of a continuous structure growing out if and molded from its contours. This effect is heightened by roof planes forming covered passages and stairways connecting the buildings.