On a bluff overlooking the Golden Gate is a school for girls serving K through 8th. RMA was hired to create a unique design both educational and inspiring to the school’s students. Three courtyards face continent maps created with colored concrete. A timeline of historic events with an inlaid brass strip runs the length of a connecting breezeway. The strip begins at 5000 B.C. with a “primordial soup” icon and proceeds along icons marking historical dates. The icons neither explain nor direct, but encourage exploration. The timeline ends at 2100 A.D. with a polished steel mirror inscribed with “Look to the Future”. Students also measure themselves against the time line: 25 years to the foot, a sign suggests, that “your life span is about 3 feet”. A child will spend about 3 inches of her life at the school. The design is educational, interactive and promotes a global awareness of others, geography and the world beyond.
