This LAUSD project challenged Gotama Building Engineers to repurpose the Hesby School, originally built in the 1950’s, deactivated in the 1980’s, with a two-phased renovation and new construction to become a modern kindergarten through 8th grade span school.  With an emphasis on meeting the requirements of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), adopted by the District, the engineers and architects worked hard to enhance the energy efficiency of facilities and recycle key elements of the existing structures to achieve the CHPS Design Criteria.

In Phase 1, the 10 existing single-story classroom buildings required extensive system overhauls in order to replace antiquated wall furnaces and lack of air conditioning while preserving many of the original features and the canopy over the walkways surrounding the buildings.  With a design that incorporates perforated metal screens outside the existing windows, new double-paned windows to reduce noise from air handlers that incorporate special filtration for the heavy particulate air pollution caused by the nearby freeway exchange, and the standard lighting wattage reduced, energy consumption was lowered, which enabled the systems to exceed the energy-savings goals by over 15%. 

Phase 2 consisted of new construction and renovation including an auditorium converted to a new library, an outdoor commons, an administration office building converted to classrooms, a new gym, and a new multi-purpose building with fixed seating.  In addition to new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems throughout, Gotama Building Engineers provided low voltage design for fire and motion detectors, data, voice, audio/visual and fiber optic cabling.

Working closely with DSA on energy modeling for this campus, Gotama Building Engineers was commended by Paul Vetter, Senior Mechanical Engineer in the Department of the State Architect (DSA) for the high quality of coordination in this project.

Client:Los Angeles Unified School District
Architect:Thomas Blurock Architects
Location:Encino, CA
Completion:September, 2006