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Darden Architects’ latest design project, the new Science Building at Turlock High School has been featured in the news this week on ABC10 Turlock.

Aging Turlock science building will be demolished, redesigned in contemporary style. The Turlock High School science building is nearly 60 years old, but it has outlived its use due to a growing population of students and teachers. Here are several excerpts from the article: “The reason… it’s happening is because the THS science building has been on their [the district’s] radar for well over 10 years as a building that was not sufficient for the programs that are being taught,” said Scott Richardson, maintenance and operations director for Turlock Unified.

A lot of the input from a district design team was about the building’s functionality and solutions to technical and programmatic issues, according to Darden Architects. 

While the building is getting built to meet the district’s modern needs, Darden Architects didn’t take a light approach with the building’s striking new design. “Turlock, it’s such a historic campus and the District Administration building… that building is so iconic that to put another building on the street of Canal Drive was quite a challenge,” said Grant Dodson, principal architect with Darden Architects.

Experts went through the campus to find six different kinds of brick weaved throughout the school. Architects took the brick detailing theme and applied it to the patterns on the building, developing a contemporary look with classic elements to better mesh with the campus.

“They [the district] didn’t want the high school students and the community to feel like the school was going backward but [that] they were actually moving forward,” said Dodson.

On the inside of the building, architects are adding dazzling displays to the walls. The building is filled with symbols of biology, chemistry, and astronomy. This includes a striking tessellation cloud design showing the start of how chemicals get their shape and a Pioneer Probe graphic.

For the complete article Click Here

Special thanks to Turlock Unified School District, Eric Escalante, and ABC10