This dynamic new Classroom Building for Sierra Canyon’s secondary school campus features thirty classrooms, a student life center, a 20,000-volume library, five studios for fine arts, and six college-level science labs. The building is designed to extend outward over its hillside site to create a generous campus plaza lifted above an open-air parking garage. This strategy keeps traffic separated from student activities while providing dramatic views of the surrounding San Fernando Valley from the plaza. To keep the building cool and conserve energy, a continuous shading screen runs the full length of the building’s south east façade.