Monterey High School wanted to expand its science department to create new, dedicated classrooms to support its burgeoning advanced chemistry and biotechnology programs. The high school is located on a sloping hillside, offering minimal space for expansion while the existing campus has limited areas for outdoor student space. CAW creatively replaced an unused art classroom with a new, two-story building that cuts into the sloping hillside. The program stacks three new science classrooms above a shared innovation laboratory space, all of which link with the existing science building to form one single complex. 

The upper classrooms are outfitted with fume hoods and biotechnology equipment, all within a flexible lab environment. The lower-level innovation center has sliding glass walls that open to outdoor learning spaces and student gathering areas so the space can function as classroom demonstration, lab, and assembly space to provide the school with highly flexible space. The outdoor areas create new terraced plazas and gathering areas, which nearly double the usable plaza space on the campus. Head of School Thomas Newton says, “Through this one new building, our entire campus will be revitalized with a greater sense of community.”