Builder Selected for UCLA’s Geffen Academy Project
LOS ANGELES — Geffen Academy, a new college-preparatory school that will be located on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, announced its builder in late October. The $23.8 million facility, designed by Koning Eizenberg Architecture of Santa Monica, Calif., will be constructed by San Diego-based BNBuilders and will eventually serve more than 600 students in grades six through 12.
Geffen Academy will be housed in the existing 75,000-square-foot Kinross Building, a three-level facility designed with flexible classrooms, offices and lab spaces that provide a versatile arrangement open to adaptation. The facility opened in 2001 and was originally constructed to serve as a multi-use facility for displaced departments on the UCLA campus while their facilities underwent seismic upgrades or renovations, according to the project’s environmental impact report. It is currently home to the Kinross Recreation Center and Graduate Student Community Center, the Fowler Museum at UCLA and the UCLA Library Conservation Center.
To accommodate the new Geffen Academy, the Kinross Building will be renovated to create classrooms, an assembly space, administrative offices, indoor athletic space and building support space, according to a statement by BNBuilders. An existing exterior area on the building’s east side will be used for outdoor arts programs. Minor site modifications will also be required, including the addition of an outdoor half-court basketball court and a new main entry. The project is being designed and constructed to achieve a minimum of LEED Silver certification.
In a statement, Jamie Awford, principal at BNBuilders, called the academy “an immensely exciting preparatory school that will offer a world-class education to Los Angeles’ promising youth.”
Construction will commence in the first quarter of 2017, and the university anticipates that Geffen Academy will be open for the 2017–2018 school year, with an approximate initial enrollment of 125 students in grades six through nine. As enrollment grows and the three upper grades are added, the university also plans to construct a new building adjacent to the Kinross Building.
The tuition-based school was funded by a $100 million gift from philanthropist David Geffen in 2015, which provided support for facility renovations, faculty and curriculum development, and other key strategic tasks. The gift will further help to fund a financial-aid program for low- and middle-income families, and UCLA projects that more than 40 percent of students will receive aid. The university also currently operates the UCLA Lab School for preschool through sixth-grade students as well as the K-12 UCLA Community School.