Corona School

Corona School

Throughout his career, Richard Neutra demonstrated a deep interest in reforming educational architecture, particularly at the elementary level, motivated by his belief that effective architectural models underpinned successful educational programs. While he began working on these ideas in the late 1920s with Rush City Reformed, Corona School was his first opportunity to realize his more innovative concepts. The wood-framed public elementary school project was a contrast to the other educational project he was working on in the same year: the all-steel California Military Academy. At Corona School, Neutra discarded with the precedent of the monolithic, multi-story structure and instead created a plan that decentralized the school. His one-story structure was only one classroom deep, with a main block of five classrooms and a secondary block of two kindergartens at right angles to the main block. He created a balanced lighting system that provided even illumination at each of the students’ seats and extended the classroom space outside with walls that slid back in every classroom.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 112.