The official groundbreaking ceremony took place yesterday morning for the Mission Bay Pre-K and Elementary School in Mission Bay, San Francisco. The event was attended by the project team, students, children, and Mayor London Breed. The school will reshape a 2.5-acre site and host up to 550 students for the San Francisco Unified School District.
Mission Bay School groundbreaking moment, image by author
In her address to the crowd, Mayor London Breed remarked, “it’s really important that we continue to prioritize education where we are building housing, so I want to thank the SF Board of Education and SFUSD for highlighting this growing neighborhood that has many families in need of good school options.”
The new school will serve the city’s Mission Bay neighborhood, which has constructed over 6,000 new homes over the last decades. The project team describes the school as “part of a major housing growth and population increase that San Francisco will continue to see on the eastern side of the City over the next decade.”
SFUSD Mission Bay School entry, rendering by DLR Group
The four-story building will yield roughly 81,800 square feet of floor area, primarily operating as a Pre-K through 5th Grade Elementary School. For the wider community, additional facilities will include the STEM-focused Linked Learning Hub for high school students and a district professional development space for educators.
The San Francisco Board of Education President, Jenny Lam, expressed that “this school further strengthens our commitment to provide a high-quality education to each and every student in our district and to equip each with the tools that will support them to thrive.”
The inclusion of the educator’s development space was emphasized as an especially vital addition to the public school system as a place to encourage teacher collaboration and community.
The school has been in the works for nearly a quarter of a century ago when the Mission Bay neighborhood master plan was initially conceived. The neighborhood now boasts over 6,000 dwelling units, of which 1,500 are affordable.
“Watching a new neighborhood take shape before our eyes is an amazing experience, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to bring a new, state-of-the-art school to San Francisco,” SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne said. Wayne described that “the school will be at the heart of a burgeoning neighborhood with close connections to the biotech industry, public health, higher education, green spaces, and more.”
SFUSD Mission Bay School southwest view, rendering by DLR Group
DLR Group is the project architect. New renderings for the project on display during the event show a more conservative color palette, an off-white exterior complemented by splashes of yellow-green tiled with highlights of yellow and red.
McCarthy Building Companies is the project contractor, and Swinerton is the construction manager. With construction having started, the SFUSD system is expected to open the Mission Bay school by August of 2025, in time for the school year. The school is expected to cost around $90 million.
UPDATE: YIMBY has been provided with updated renderings for the Mission Bay School.
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Will this serve Mission Bay residents within walking distance? I thought kids are forced to be bussed out of their own neighborhoods across town in SF. With the decline in SFUSD enrollment and older schools badly needing renovation, this like seems a bit of a waste.