The Campbell Union High School District began acquiring sites in a uniform spacing throughout it’s boundaries resulting a an even distribution of school sites so that neighborhood access and identity would be supported. Additionally, the partner Districts were developing as well based on smaller scale neighborhood elementary schools. Based on the suburban growth patterns anticipated, the planning of the District was quite visionary.

As the schools were being planned, the District turned to CSS Architecture for architectural and planning services. CSS began working with the District to develop a series of somewhat standardized schools that were responsive to their sites while providing the consistency necessary to teach students according to a District wide vision.

The result at all sites (except Prospect due to its limited acreage) was the development of what we call the Finger Plan Schools. The schools are named this way because they consist of a series of wings aligned like fingers that serve the basic core of the facility.

The finger plan schools offer a number of vital assets to students and faculty. At the level of the individual wings they provide the following:

• Single loaded classrooms wings in which all rooms have direct access to outside corridors. This is a huge factor in student safety because buildings can be exited easily in case of an emergency.


• Windows and resulting daylight and ventilation available on two sides of the classroom. This offers greater visual access to the outdoors, a principle recently proven to improve student performance, as well as cross ventilation and excellent interior light.


• Courtyards between the wings that are particular to a set of classrooms and, therefore, can serve as outdoor space to those classrooms.


• Excellent circulation with minimum maintenance. Because the corridors are exterior, students can move between classes without excess congestion, thereby making movement and socializing more convenient, and less stressful.

At the level of the site as a whole the Finger Plan Schools offer even larger advantages to students and teachers:

• The individual wings are joined by corridors that serve as the “Main Street” of the campus. All wings are organized along these corridors making it easy to learn to navigate the campus. This particularly important to freshman who may be dealing with a large environment for the first time.


• The Main Street meets the quad, the “Town Square” of the campus around which many of the student related functions are organized. The quad typically joins the Cafetoriums, the Snack Bar, Amphitheater, Student Services, the Library, Gyms and other service functions so that the quad becomes the center of life for the school. The quads enjoy great success as evidence by the amount of use that gravitates there.


• The finger plans allow for disbursed circulation through the campus so that large numbers of students may move through with limited congestion. The plan allows students to access the quad from many directions and rarely results in crowding and grid lock.

One of the most striking results of the finger plans, particularly as they were designed here, is the fact that they are actually green buildings.

The finger plan schools were designed with respect for the environment and a desire to reduce energy use back when there was no apparent need to do so. The classroom wings were aligned along an east-west axis. In conjunction with window location and roof overhangs, this alignment provides shading from daytime sun and good north light for the classrooms. This has resulted in only a limited need for cooling on certain days of the year.

The original schools included radiant heat in the floors as the primary source of heating. Coupled with high levels of insulation for the time, the schools performed in a somewhat efficient manner. By today’s standards they need improvement, but heir basic design features make the Finger Plans well suited to modern energy upgrades.

Part of the LTFIP effort will include consideration of Photovoltaic panels on all school roofs. Because of their ideal orientation and the fact that the schools need most of their electricity when the sun is out, solar electric generation could substantially reduce the District’s electric bills.

Because they were built well structurally, there are no plans to tear down any of the original wings. The quality of lumber and materials in the 1950’s and 60’s coupled with the remaining skill and care in the construction industry at the time resulted in basic structures that have generations of life left in them. While finishes and systems certainly need replacing, the fact that the primary structure of these schools is so sound makes allows us to use them much longer. This reduces the burden on resources for new construction and extends the life of the embedded resources in the existing schools. This is probably one of the most significant ways to reduce impacts on the environment: through re-use and extended use of the buildings we have already built.

Overall the original schools provide a wide range of amenities that would be difficult to reproduce in new construction, particularly with the actual resources of the Program in mind. For this reason, most of the LTFIP resources have been directed at renovation of existing buildings. The fact that the existing buildings are in good shape allows us to provide increased amenities through systems and features without the need to reconstruct foundations and frames.