Due to overcrowding of several high schools in the vicinity of Downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District faced the need for an additional school to accommodate 1,700 students. The single parcel owned by the school district in the Crown Hill District was insufficient to accommodate a program comparable to that for suburban schools with their significant recreational facilities. To address this issue, the master plan recommended the acquisition of a large undeveloped parcel across Third Street just north of the parcel they controlled. Once connected by a pedestrian bridge, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex is the largest new urban high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The project provides 71 classrooms along with facilities that can be shared with the community, such as the auditorium and sports facilities that are sited intentionally to avoid disrupting classes. The site’s most significant constraint is its topography with an elevation difference of 30 feet between the street and the northern parcel. The plan uses this constraint to its advantage through a series of stepped outdoor spaces in the southern parcel rising to a landscaped inner courtyard as an organizing structure for surrounding classrooms. This forms the Academic Campus on the southern parcel. That Academic Complex is then connected to the Sports Complex on the northern parcel by a secured bridge over Third Street. The overall site layout enables the school’s athletic facilities as well as the auditorium to be used after school hours by the general public while securing the academic areas.