Richard Riley Award
Community Learning Centers for the 21st Century
Presented by:
Camino Nuevo Charter Academy
Located in MacArthur Park, one of the poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy’s Burlington Campus is a striking example of how a development strategy built around schools can succeed in helping to rebuild a community. Like the Rosa Parks School in Portland, Oregon, a 2007 Award winner, Camino Nuevo is a case study of how community based schools can be a central force in creating successful community partnerships that nurture and rebuild communities.
Camino Nuevo is a direct outgrowth of community organization led by Pueblo Nuevo Development (PND), a nonprofit community development corporation formed in 1993 as part of a grass roots effort to help immigrant families. Initially focused on supporting small businesses, PDN initiated a school-anchored community development strategy in 1999 when parents sought to change the educational landscape of the community. At the time, many child immigrants were being bussed to other neighborhoods as far as the San Fernando Valley, and were not learning English. The initial result was the founding of the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. PDN has since gone on to develop three additional schools.
The AAF jury awarded the Burlington Campus the Richard Riley Award in recognition of its transformative design which has helped to spark a revitalization of the broader community. Described by jurist as a “burst of color and hope” in a struggling urban landscape, the school was developed on the site of a former mini-mall at a cost of $12.7 million dollars. Help was provided by Local Initiatives Support Corporation in Los Angeles, an organization that provides financing to create sustainable communities.
“Camino Nuevo is a wonderful example of how great design can give hope to a community and it is a national model of how great design need not be costly,” said Ronald E. Bogle, President and CEO of the American Architectural Foundation as well as a member of the AAF jury. Camino Nuevo is considered a national model by charter school advocates for creative financing due to its multitude of partnerships.
The Burlington Campus is now home to a pre-school, elementary school and middle school, totaling 517 K-8 students. Over 50 percent of the students are English Language Learners and ninety-seven percent are eligible for free or price reduced lunch. One unique aspect of the school educational strategy is an extended school year totaling 195 days compared to the traditional 180 day school calendar. As a result the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy currently ranks 8 out of 10 (10 being the highest) on the California Academic Performance Index when compared to schools with similar socioeconomic populations.
In addition, Camino Nuevo also offers parent workshops and health services, including an on-site medical clinic to serve a community where close to half of all adults are uninsured. The school provides rent-free space to the Paja Medical Group in exchange for various medical services provided to the school children. There is also a wide array of after school and other enrichment programs offered through partnerships with the Youth Policy Institute, P.S.Arts, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Child Development Center.
This is not the first time Camino Nuevo has received an award for its outstanding architecture. In making its unanimous decision, the AAF jury noted that the design of the school ensured a focus of natural light and that a concerted effort was made to apply the principles of sustainability in the extensive reuse of building materials.
Camino Nuevo Elementary School was featured on the cover of The Architectural Review (November 2002) and has previously won several awards from the American Institute of Architects. In 2003, Pueblo Nuevo Development was selected by a jury of urban design experts from around the county as the Gold Medal winner of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. Most recently, in 2008, The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design gave an American Architecture Award to Camino Nuevo High School.