In partnership with Overaa Construction and Gould Evans, BASE worked on the design-build of a new campus for the Ocean View Elementary School (OVES) community in Albany, California. Our work at OVES consisted of designing a community school around “shared resources” for a diverse and transient population. 

The design team engaged in stakeholder and user group meetings around the “shared resources” pedagogy. For example, the Family Courtyard, the Library and Multi-purpose Room serve the school community, the neighborhood community, and the adjacent UC Berkeley UC Village community. We asked: “How can a school community with a high transient population (due to graduate students and their families starting and completing UC Berkeley’s quarterly programs) create a strong sense of belonging for students that spend short periods of time here? How can we design an environment where ‘community is created every day’ for these shorter term students as well as longer term students in the Albany community?” The joint use and shared community spaces guided the design principles for this district.