Mission/ Kate Kennedy CDC Modernization
San Francisco Unified School District

The Mission Education Center is a K-5 elementary school for newly arrived Spanish speaking immigrant students.  Kate Kennedy Child Development Center, a family-oriented, before and after school program, shares the site.  Our work at the campus consisted of accessibility and  fire and life-safety improvements to the school building and play yard.  This involved the construction of a new elevator tower and egress stair addition; site grading and replacement of retaining walls; replacement of play structures; as well as upgrades to toilet rooms, doors, and stairwells.

Site accessibility was particularly difficult at this school.  Located on a hillside, the play yard slopes at over 8 percent.  We designed a new area at the upper end of the play yard to create an accessible play area and connected it to the non-accessible play yard to allow children to pass freely between the two as well as to make playground supervision easier.  Our design solution uses a two-sided elevator to allow split-level stops connecting the school building to the new accessible play yard.