The new Rex and Margaret Fortune Early College School, an independent charter school campus, provides increased access to a rigorous, college preparatory, Pre-K-12 program for local students. This new charter school was intentionally built with the goal of eliminating the achievement gap for historically underserved students. This new 21st-century STEAM-focused learning environment is inspired by modern university design principles. The campus hosts student and teacher collaboration spaces, an art studio, music classroom, multiple science laboratories, a recording studio, and outdoor classrooms. Fortune has a network of schools located in existing buildings, but this was their first opportunity to design a school from the ground up. The design focuses on biophilic principals, such as the use of high-contrast materials, natural daylight, outdoor plazas and spaces, and natural green screens used to both give the facade a natural feel and act as exterior shading to reduce solar heat gain and visual glare. Partnering with local colleges and universities, this new campus provides a modern, beautiful, collaborative environment where students can earn an associate degree upon high school graduation and easily transition to a CSU or UC system university, making the high school graduating class of 2020 truly the university class of 2024.
