For years, the Wildcats of REVHS were always “visitors” but never the home team. After many years of planning, community discussions, and environmental studies, the Wildcats will soon be able to have their own track and field stadium. The school’s main campus opened in 1997, and at that time stadium funding was not available. The high school has been holding sports events at the University of Redlands and other sports facilities throughout the region.
Now, construction of the new stadium is well underway. Consisting of three phases, Phase One broke ground in January of this year and is scheduled for completion in early January 2023. Each phase will cost between $4-5 million. Currently, Redlands Unified School District has secured $7.8 million with ongoing fundraisers including a GoFundMe campaign.
East Valley Stadium Coalition and the Redlands Community Foundation held meetings along with fundraisers to help push the project toward the finish line.
Going the Extra Mile
PCH Architects calls Redlands ‘home.’ For over thirty-five years, our firm has designed schools throughout several Southern California counties, most notability in San Bernardino County. When the RFP was issued for this project, we faced some exceptionally talented competition. We had completed a sports field complex and swim complex for a few high schools in Corona-Norco Unified, yet we wanted to give the selection committee more than a past-project pitch.
Although we had the experience, the larger architecture firms could captivate the selection committee with loads of great projects… so we knew we had to go the extra mile.
Thinking Differently
Firm Associate and lead designer Lis Zuloaga and other team members, including Kenia Quintos, collaborated to develop a massing model. The model illustrated the project’s design, volume, height, and shape. We struck a favorable chord with our approach and turned a twenty-five-year-old dream into a tangible project that the district’s selection committee could visualize. In 2020, we were awarded the project.
We began our research by visiting the site and soon determined that the existing topography required raising the level of the field up by thirteen feet—our design had to accommodate this challenge. We designed two separate buildings for the home and visitor’s teams using retaining walls while considering how this initial Phase One design decision would impact each subsequent phase. Ms. Quintos formulated a ‘fly-through’ using graphic visualization softwares and we played up these design points in our solution, giving the district a well-thought-out plan of action to minimize risk in potential costly changes.
In November 2020, we completed the design and construction documents with final plans being approved by DSA in late 2021. Construction started in January 2022. On May 10, 2022, the Redlands Unified School District board approved the Environmental Impact Report for construction of the stadium.
A Three-Part Winning Attitude
Designing a sports complex is vastly different than designing a structure like a school, civic center, or church. So, what drives us? It is the project’s diversity —complex civil engineering, huge components like stadium lighting and seating, building structures, and even weather considerations that must be accounted for. Secondly, Project Manager Steve Shunk is diligently on top of things. “I keep things moving,” he recently said. By attending bi-weekly meetings and making regular job site visits, Steve oversees all aspects of construction administration and addresses any of the district’s questions.
Thirdly, the project’s physical challenges, deadlines, the community’s engagement, and excitement for the new stadium also motivates us. We regularly hear from parents, teachers, students, and civic personnel through phone calls and emails voicing their support, enthusiasm, and overwhelming encouragement that the students will finally have a stadium of their own to call ‘Home of the Wildcats.’
Check out the stadium’s construction progress on our Vimeo channel.
Three-Phase Project
Grading, underground utilities, synthetic turf, track, stadium lighting, and scoreboard.
Home and visitor bleachers with visitor building that includes restrooms, ticket booth, and concessions.
Home building that will house restrooms, concessions, storage, team rooms, and custodial.
PCH Team and Roles
Pedro Jaramillo: Principal Architect
Lis Zuloaga: Firm Associate, Lead Designer
Steve Shunk: Project Manager
Kenia Quintos: Project Assistant
Project Description
Budget: Three phases. $4-5 million per phase
Client: Redlands Unified School District
Project: Redlands East Valley High School (REVHS) Stadium design and construction
Client contact: Ken S. Morse, Coordinator, Operations and Facilities Planning
Completion dates: Phase 1: early January 2023; Phase 2: 2024-2025; Phase 3 2026
Civil Engineering: SLR Engineering
Structural Engineer: Hohbach-Lewin, Inc.
Mechanical/Plumbing/Electrical Engineering: Design West Engineering
Landscape Architect: STB Landscape Architects
Contractor: Ohno Construction
Resources
By Rick Arias, Principal Architect, AIA, LEED AP BD + C
I subscribe to CalMatters, an online resource that helps me keep abreast of economic, social, political, and environmental news in California. Their non-partisan reporting covers all things California from school lunches to gas rebates and water imports.
As a major player in school design, I’ve found that CalMatters offers a comprehensive overview on subjects that directly impact schools throughout California—and they ultimately affect the school districts we work with.
Here are a few of the recent developments affecting K-12 schools relating to the 2022-23 budget:
The 2022-23 fiscal budget was passed in June 2022.
Public schools will receive another windfall, following the record-breaking education budget that was approved in 2021. There’s a formula for “base funding for local control funding” which determines how much funding schools will receive—it’s been raised by 13% with $9 billion allocated for public schools. This is the largest increase in school funding since 2013.
Additionally, the budget includes another $8 billion in learning recovery grants following the learning gaps brought about by the pandemic.
$4 billion has been budgeted to fund before- and after-school and summer programs.
To combat the ongoing staffing crisis, the budget allocates nearly $2 billion in teacher prep and retention efforts.
A Barrage of Changes for Schools
After two years of educational disruption due to the pandemic, school districts, students, parents, and teachers are face-to-face with many new policies and laws.
California AB 2295 will take effect on January 1, 2024 and will allow school districts to use any vacant property or underutilized property they own to build low to medium income rental housing for school employees and the general public. Designing for residential may be in our future! Get all the details here.
There are COVID policies that I encourage you to know about. You can learn more here:
Middle schools can no longer start earlier than 8:00 am and high schools no earlier than 8:30 am. These changes are based on research that shows that students do better in school when they have more rest.
California is beginning to phase in universal transitional kindergarten (TK). Essentially adding a fourteenth grade, this change could impact our work with school district needing more classrooms to accommodate students.
Two free school meals-a-day for all students will be offered.
The CalKIDS Program was launched to fund college saving accounts for low-income K-12 students. This will benefit 3.8 million students. Check out more about this program.
Pumpkin and Spice and Everything Nice
Now that days are getting darker earlier and the nights get colder, the holiday season is quickly upon us. You are a part of the PCH Architects family, and we are grateful to you. It is our hope that this Thanksgiving you will share the joy of the holiday with family and friends.
