San Diego Area High School Unveils Stellar Events Venue
By SCN Staff
LAKESIDE, Calif.—El Capitan High School in Lakeside, near San Diego, now has a new 15,000-square-foot Events Center—a state-of-the-art platform for campus events, performances, and other activities. The new facility includes a spacious event center, lobby and concession areas, band room, practice rooms, dance studio, and drama classrooms. The complex is split into two buildings to create a dramatic entrance with a focal point and strategically designed outdoor spaces.
The project was designed by HED and built by C.W. Driver; it emphasizes multi-functionality, with indoor and outdoor learning and gathering spaces. The event center includes a flat floor with retractable seating and a ceiling pipe grid to promote flexibility for holding various events, including drama productions, band performances, gallery shows and other activities.
The project draws upon the cultural heritage of El Capitan High School’s “Vaquero Pride” and emphasizes and reflects the unique location of the campus near the mountains and to the Sycamore Canyon Preserve.
This is the alma mater of the architect, Jennette La Quire, and the firm has completed a number of projects on the campus (agriculture complex, physical education building, science building, and an administration building now under way).
La Quire and the HED team have worked on a number of high school events centers; this is the second to be finished (Santana High School was the first) and the third (Monte Vista High School) is under construction.
FACTS & FIGURES
project type: design/bid/build
project scale: 15,888 sf
project team:
- Architect (full service): HED
- Contractor: C.W. Driver
- Electrical Engineer: IMEG
- Mechanical & Plumbing Engineering: MA Engineers
- Landscape Architect: Spurlock
- Civil Engineer: Snipes-Dye & Associates
- Structural Engineer: Wiseman + Rohy
- Theater Design: Idibri
project cost: $11 million
project completed: December 2019