Oceanside High School Performing Arts Center

Oceanside High School’s new Performing Arts Center serves as an iconic gateway to the downtown Oceanside community. Moreover, the Center provides a positive face to the Interstate 5 freeway and Mission Boulevard intersection, as well as welcomes visitors to the inner high school campus. The large, transparent lobby glows at twilight and in the evening hours. This space serves as its own multipurpose venue, uniting the plaza and two performance halls. The program for this facility is inclusive of a 500-seat main hall, 150-seat studio theater, indoor and outdoor scenery shops, a recording studio, classroom space, and outdoor seating with performance areas.

Timeless materials of block, glass and metal panel reflect a civic quality, but are also durable and will stand the test of time with heavy student and community use. The building has a distinctive silhouette from various perspectives that speaks to its function and provides orientation. The project offers integrated, versatile and inviting indoor/outdoor spaces. Outdoor spaces include: driveways, drop-off areas, parking and pedestrian plazas that contribute to a coherent, safe and readily occupied urban landscape.

Sustainable landscape and building strategies are utilized as part of the design. Features include exposed southwest walls that are covered with a ‘green screen’ for cooling and natural ventilation. A broad roof overhang promotes indoor/outdoor use of the lobby. Main spaces in the building employ displacement ventilation, taking advantage of the single tiered seating and large volume of the theater spaces. A central plant is located in the exterior yard adjacent to the building for acoustical isolation and to maximize efficiency of the displacement cooling and heating system. The theater has load bearing concrete masonry walls to provide thermal mass and to allow for night flushing to help cool the buildings in warm weather.

Anecdotes:

“There is a sense of urgency in our community and in the state of California to really change the way that we are bringing education to our students and the way we are preparing them for their future. And so, having this state of the art facility and the ability to bring the world of work to our students here is just incredible and is really something that we really need to be doing.”
– Teresa Collins, Principal, Oceanside High School

“What people can see when they first enter the space is a world class facility. This space was designed by theater people. It is truly state of the art. This facility is really one of a kind. I’ve worked in a variety of high school performing arts centers in this county and there is nothing that compares to this. Our students are really going to get a facility that is a true Performing Arts Center. It’s going to give them the real-world experience of a space instead of a typical classroom theater.”
– Jeremy Sewel, PAC Technician, Oceanside High School