When the Palisades fire destroyed Village School's campus, the task was no longer to imagine an ideal school. Roughly 300 children needed an everyday place again while their families were still living through an emergency.
OFFICEUNTITLED worked with the school, BXP and the City of Santa Monica to convert a vacant floor at Colorado Center. Initial occupancy was achieved in under three weeks—ten working days according to the studio—while the complete transformation continued during summer 2025.
The 65,000-square-foot floor offered daylight and access to a 3.5-acre park, but it had been designed for adults at work. The project created two neighbourhoods for younger and older pupils, connected by boulevards, colours and fragments of the school's identity.
Partial-height partitions preserve daylight and much of the existing building services. Repeated demountable glass screens can be removed and reused when Village School returns to its permanent campus. Existing carpet and other office finishes stayed wherever they still worked.
AdvertisementARQUITHEAArchitecture for seeing more clearlyIdeas, buildings and tools for understanding the city through real questions.Follow @arquithea_ ↗Five schools displaced by the fire eventually occupied more than 200,000 square feet of offices and retail space in Santa Monica. The emergency found a reserve of space created by long-term changes in work and property vacancy.
Not every office can become a school. Depth, windows, exits, toilets, structure, noise and outdoor space matter. That is precisely why cities could inventory adaptable buildings before a disaster makes the decision urgent.
Should cities treat empty buildings as part of their emergency infrastructure?
Yes, through prior inventories of space, daylight, access, services and compatible uses. This does not mean turning every office into a school; it means knowing which buildings can change function and what upgrades they would need before decisions must be made in days.
