The LAUSD Roy Romer Middle School is located at the northwest Corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Hamlin Street. The site’s significant impacts include the 170-freeway located one-half mile west of the site and air traffic from nearby Van Nuys and Burbank Airports. The L-shaped site was part of a designated redevelopment area, and it is bounded by single family residential units to the west, Laurel Canyon to the east, and Kittridge and Hamlin Streets on the north and south respectively. Laurel Canyon is a major north-south arterial connecting the north valley and the city of Los Angeles, and this portion of Laurel Canyon is largely strip-commercial and multi-family residential development.

The challenge at Roy Romer Middle School was to provide for the program for 1,647 middle school students within this constrained urban site. Following a study of alternative site plan configurations, the selected solution organizes campus buildings around a large central public square that serves as the school’s entry and major social center and buffers it from the noise and traffic surrounding the school. Accessed from Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the square is defined by four major areas including a Classroom and Administration Wing, a Multi-Purpose Building, a Multimedia Center, and Gymnasium/ Fitness Center. The school’s program was based upon of a “community school” model, and the site and plan is based in part on a series of north-south buildings around landscape courtyards that create an inner sanctum with a variety of spaces for small group socialization and instruction.