Wonderful College Preparatory Academy

Creating a campus landscape that supports exceptional learning and is also sustainable requires a multilayered solution. This public, tuition-free charter school offers a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum to prepare students for 21st century opportunities.

MIG | AHBE took design inspiration from both the regional desert setting and the area’s agricultural history. The perimeter landscape features a field of gabion walls that reflect patterns found in nearby agricultural fields, but that use nearly zero potable water, like the desert ecology. The campus spaces are framed by a series of olive groves that mimic surrounding almond trees.

The flexible and multi-functional common quad spaces enhance student and faculty engagement, social interaction, and offer a connection to nature. Laid out in a grid of circles that reference irrigated crop fields as seen from the sky, these spaces serve as outdoor classrooms and give the 12-building campus a sense of identity and security. The drought-tolerant campus has been recognized for setting a high standard for sustainable and context-specific design.

2017 Award of Merit, Southern California, K-12 Education—Engineering News Record (ENR) Best of California.