Daly City: Olympia School Campus | Architect: Mario J. Ciampi | Muralist: Ann Knorr | Landscape Architect: Lawrence Halprin

OLYMPIA PRIMARY SCHOOL, though it is recognizably of a definite type, responds in several ways to the special needs of the community it serves. The architect had previously designed several rather orthodox schools for the district; out of that experience and a re-evaluation of the school building problems of Daly City's increasingly dense population came some fresh decisions, for which state approval had to be obtained.

Basically Olympia is a home school unit, kindergarten through third grade, a summer recreation facility and a center of community activity. In addition, the problems of maintenance, vandalism and exposure to winds and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean became important design factors. The cost of maintaining wood and stucco in the school district, the observation that classroom lights burned almost continuously despite careful design attention to daylighting, the need for a lively, joyous building in which the community could take pride- these were some more factors. Hence the building has a concrete roof deck erected by the lift-slab method; its exterior walls are of textured, reinforced concrete blocks painted a pleasing color; it turns inward to the surprise and delight of its central court, shutting out the mono- tone subdivisions that surround the site; its classrooms have entire luminous ceilings; it sparkles throughout with light and life and color that are a far cry from both the usual drab scientific interpretation of lighting requirements and the dead level of speculative housing.

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source: Architectural Record | October 1956