Everett Middle School Schoolyard Transformation
Landscape Architect: Groundworks Office
Project location: San Francisco, California
BUILT 2025
For decades, Everett Middle School’s outdoor space was a flat expanse of black asphalt, too hot to gather on, too undifferentiated to play on, too impermeable to do anything useful with rainfall. The transformation of that space into a multifaceted active schoolyard is, at its core, a study in programmatic intelligence: demonstrating how a constrained urban site can support multiple uses simultaneously—and support each of them effectively.
The design operates through a hybrid overlay strategy. Rather than assigning discrete zones to individual uses, a field here, a garden there, a stormwater feature tucked at the edge, program elements are layered directly on top of one another. The central permeable turf field handles athletics, informal play, and stormwater infiltration simultaneously, with check dams integrated invisibly into the field surface. Rain gardens capture runoff from ball courts and track surfaces, then double as outdoor classroom spaces and pollinator habitat. A sloped amphitheater serves both as a gathering space and as a topographic device for managing surface flow. The result is a yard that accommodates far more than its footprint would suggest, without any single use compromising another.
The project was assembled from three funding streams: a San Francisco public utilities grant ($1.9M), a city bond measure ($2.7M), and a private donation ($1.4M), each with its own requirements, from stormwater performance standards to the Americans with Disabilities Act, adding accessibility, to athletic programming needs. Meeting all of them within a single constrained site required every design decision to earn its place. Modular prefabricated storage containers were repurposed on-site rather than replaced, refreshed with patterned paint that references the school’s original architectural character and reinforces school pride and identity. Nothing was added that didn’t serve multiple purposes.
The green infrastructure allows rain to soak into the ground, reduces flooding, and teaches the next generation the value of building climate resilience. A cistern collects rainwater to irrigate the bioretention planter in the courtyard. Up to one million gallons of rainwater will be collected each year, easing pressure on San Francisco’s sewer system during heavy storms. This SFPUC Grant project is one of 26, including 10 in partnership with SFUSD, that will capture more than 16 million gallons of stormwater each year and are helping San Francisco stay on track to capture one billion gallons of stormwater annually by 2050.
The site’s planting palette consists of 80% California native species, chosen to support pollinators and strengthen local biodiversity. To deepen students’ connection to their environment, a field guide was developed featuring illustrations and descriptions of each plant and tree introduced to the schoolyard, highlighting their distinct characteristics. The expanded tree canopy also helps mitigate the urban heat island effect both on-site and throughout the surrounding neighborhood.
Students helped shape the design through in-person workshops using a scaled kit-of-parts tool, a method that made program tradeoffs legible and gave the school community genuine agency over the outcome. What was designed, and what was built, is not a schoolyard with green features added on. It is a landscape that teaches climate resilience, ecological systems, and collective stewardship by simply being what it is every day, at recess, at lunch, in class, and in the rain.
CREDITS:
Landscape Architect: Groundworks Office
Civil Engineer: Lotus Water
Architect: Lionakis
Structural Engineer: Lionakis
Client: San Francisco Unified School District
General Contractor: Angotti and Reilly
Construction Manager: Kitchell
Electrical: Capital Engineering Consultants
Irrigation: ALI Consulting
Photography: SF Water, Yajaira Duran (drone photos)
Photography: Andrea Gaffney
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