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Francis Parker Campus Tour + Luncheon

March 31, 2023 from 10:00am to 12:30pm Pacific Standard Time

Francis Parker School

Greg Papay, FAIA

Francis Parker School is a private, independent, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in junior kindergarten through grade 12. Founded in 1912, the school is in San Diego, California. “Parker was built on the values and educational ideals of Francis Parker, who was a renowned 19th-century education reformer,” said Kevin Yaley, head of school for Francis Parker. “A pioneer of the progressive school movement in the United States, Parker believed in the complete development of a student’s mental, physical, and moral capacity.”

The school was founded on the principle that engaging with the environment increases students’ awareness of the world and their place within it. Francis Parker’s new upper and middle school campus — master planned and designed by Lake|Flato — reflects this same spirit. The campus consists of academic structures and transition spaces that become the great public rooms, the quads and the lawns.

“When we started thinking about this campus, we called it a garden campus and a campus of gardens,” said Greg Papay, FAIA, partner with Lake|Flato. “A series of outdoor spaces that would become the living rooms of campus where a lot of the life would take place.” This idea is consistent with the architectural history of the school.