Venice High School

The rebuild of Venice High School was completed on an occupied, active campus during a three-phase process. The new buildings were organized around the existing buildings to create a 21st century campus that was safe, community based and minimized disruption to the daily activities of the school.

Construction included repurposing existing structures and creating new structures including: multi-story academic buildings, an administration building, a media center, gymnasium and a performing arts center capable of seating 1,100 patrons. Creating a prominent, civic presence in the community was the defining aesthetic goal for the new Venice High School.

During the initial design development, it was made clear that site constraints demanded this four building project be a hybrid, with the gymnasium and the Venice Performing Arts Center buildings constructed with thin brick imbedded tilt-wall concrete panels. The classrooms and administration building (which included a curved elevation) are conventional brick veneer to match over CMU cavity-wall, providing brick facing as the consistent, seamless cladding for all four buildings.

“Glen-Gery’s long-standing reputation for quality products and the ability to manufacturer both thin and full size brick units that met the design criteria for this project solidified our selection.” - SchenkelShultz Architecture

An increasing number of design professionals embrace thin brick as a solution to a growing set of challenges presented in today’s construction climate.

Rough texture utility size brick: Sand (R33) and Boulder Grey (R83) were selected, which offered both ASTM C-216 Type FBX facebrick and paraffin wax-coated thin brick that match in color, texture and size and also met the requirements of PCI for tilt-wall.

This approach resulted in the most cost effective and seamless construction for each building that addressed the constraints head on and with great success. The results will speak for themselves for decades to come.