Francis Parker School

Francis Parker School was founded in 1912 on the principle that engaging the environment increases students’ awareness of the world and their place within it. The school’s new upper and middle school campus—master planned and designed by Lake Flato—reflects this same spirit. Frances Parker School sought a practical campus design that captured the school’s character and spirit, celebrated student experiences, and improved educational opportunities. The campus consists of academic structures and various quads and courtyards that become the school’s great public spaces, the backdrop of campus life and infinite hands-on learning opportunities.

The open nature of the classrooms and courtyards meshes with the school’s spirit of showcasing the process of education as much as its products. The campus emphasizes varied types of exterior spaces targeted to increase campus educational and social opportunities. As students, parents, faculty, administration, and visitors move about campus, they perceive how the learning process is unfolding and can be engaged and inspired to participate.

Lake Flato worked with Francis Parker School to complete 14 new multi-story classroom buildings that open onto landscaped courtyards, taking advantage of San Diego’s benevolent climate. The campus features exterior walkways and operable window walls that connect students to the outdoors. Students, faculty, and administration participated in the design process, reflecting the school’s open approach to education. By their very architectural nature, the buildings serve as pedagogical tools, demonstrating Francis Parker School’s emphasis on process and transparency.

A History of Experiential Education

Francis Parker School was built on the values and educational ideals of Francis Parker, a 19th-century educational reformer who believed in a student-centered approach to developing the whole child through real-world experiences.
In 1912, Francis Parker School started as a progressive school that believed deeply in ‘learning by doing’ and espoused the importance of experiential education.
The school’s new master plan and campus recaptures the spirit of the original 1912 structures, emphasizing vibrant, landscaped exterior spaces.
The original classrooms featured garage doors that rolled-up to bring the outdoors in, inspiring the design of the new campus’ flexible learning spaces.
The school's tilt-wall concrete construction recalls the spirit of the innovative, early 20th-century projects completed in the San Diego region by Rudolf Schindler and Irving Gill.

All classrooms are naturally ventilated and daylit with an innovative arrangement of light shelves and sunshades that filter and direct breezes and sunlight. In addition, all classrooms have pocketing glass doors, providing direct

Tilt-Wall Construction

Innovative Project Delivery

The campus’ new buildings reflect Francis Parker School’s progressive spirit and environmental consciousness through a series of innovations. The campus’ tilt-wall method involves casting concrete panels horizontally on the ground, then tilting them up to form the walls of a building, offering advantages with cost-effectiveness and speed. The classroom buildings were constructed using tilt-up concrete poured with high fly-ash content to reduce carbon emissions. Recycled glass was cast into the tilt wall slabs and ground like terrazzo, capturing the California sun.

As models for creative environmental responsibility, the buildings’ architecture makes them pedagogical tools. The new classrooms, punctuated by operable walls, encourage connectivity to the environment to expose the process of education.

Francis Parker has completed a unique, world class facility that boldly states the sense of balance, community, security, and respect for the environment, as well as the vision of tomorrow that defines Francis Parker. Grant Lichtman

Former Chief Operating Officer