Animo Opens
Animo Venice Charter High School, the project I have been working on at Osborn for the past 10 months, opened for classes on time yesterday. The 45,000 sf. two-story school for 500+ students is run by Green Dot Public Schools. Set on a very small site adjacent to an LAUSD elementary school in a Venice neighborhood, the project consists of a long classroom/admin building along a covered outdoor corridor, with a gymnasium building set across a long open space running the length of the site. A shade structure (not installed yet, but coming!) adjacent to the gym will serve as an area to eat lunch or hang out. Photovoltaic solar panels cover the roof and are spaced along the west facing elevation of the building, and will supplement the power to the building.
Animo Venice was the first school to receive a grant from the High Performance Incentive Grant program in California, which earmarks $100 million for green school projects.