Placer High School New Learning Commons, Placer Union High School District

The New Learning Commons at Placer High School is a two-story, 16,000-square-foot building that replaced an existing 8,000-square-foot single-story building. The new building has become the main entrance and hub of the campus, serving as a community focal point. The first floor of the building includes a food court-styled cafeteria with two overhead garage doors that open to a covered outdoor seating area and a snack bar counter. The learning commons on the second floor includes a career center, classroom, two study rooms, book stacks, a circulation desk, and an outdoor covered patio. Both levels include a variety of seating and studying options with collaboration space, quiet study space, soft seating, and reading nooks.

A key design feature of the building is a Learning Stair in the main lobby that connects the first and second floors, providing a light-filled space for students to collaborate. The building is modern with a collegiate sensibility that incorporates elements from the historic campus including a Spanish tile hip roof, yellow stucco finish with a red base, black trim, wrought iron details, punched windows, arches, and colonnades. Natural limestone and a decorative tile detail with backlit laser-cut metal panels add a new texture to the façade.

In the interior, the structure of the building is celebrated with exposed steel X-braces, polished concrete flooring, and open ceilings with floating clouds for acoustics. The color palette and finishes pay homage to the local foothill geography and mining history with carpet that reflects the stratified earth, and references to copper, gold, wood, and leather. The school logo and colors of green and gold were incorporated into the furnishings.