Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, Los Angeles
by Jonathan McGaha | 13 February 2012 12:00 am
Located on the grounds of the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where Senator Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools is a K-12 complex designed by Gonzales Goodale Architects, Pasadena, Calif. The campus features approximately 95,000 square feet of RHEINZINK metal wall panels from RHEINZINK America Inc., Woburn, Mass. RHEINZINK was used throughout the multi-building complex, including 35,000 square feet of 0.8-mm, 22-gauge RHEINZINK Pre-weathered Blue-Gray Double Lock Standing Seam Panels; 50,000 square feet of 0.8-mm, 22-gauge RHEINZINK Pre- weathered Blue-Gray Angled Standing Seam Panels and 10,000 square feet of RHEINZINK Pre-weathered Blue-Gray Interlocking Tile Soffit.
The campus is divided into a K-5 school, a middle school and a high school. Of particular interest is the 92,000-square-foot K-5 school, a 44-classroom, two-story structure clad with RHEINZINK. Aesthetically, the RHEINZINK panels serve as a contrast to other brightly painted building materials, including painted plaster and perforated metals in a spectrum that combines white, charcoal gray, bright orange and yellow-green.
As the RHEINZINK panels are 100 percent recyclable, they fit in nicely with the overall use of sustainable design found in the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. The campus exceeds the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), an assessment system that rates school buildings in terms of sustainability and construction. All new schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District are built to meet CHPS criteria.
Aside from the school’s name, the campus works off an innovative Pilot School System that creates small 500-student schools united under the banner of the Robert F. Kennedy Schools campus. The campus also features extensive public art, including two murals that capture the life and passions of Robert F. Kennedy. The architects also preserved several vestiges of the historic hotel, including the large sign on Wilshire Boulevard, the Embassy Ballroom and renovation of the famed Cocoanut Grove to include a 500-seat auditorium.
The RHEINZINK panels were fabricated by Contemporary Solutions
& Innovations, Carson, Calif., and installed by Best Contracting, Gardena, Calif. The general contractor on the project was Hansel Phelps Construction Company, Irvine, Calif.
RHEINZINK America Inc., www.rheinzink.com,
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