The $58 million Solis Park K-8 School for the Irvine Unified School District was just finished by C.W. Driver, a cornerstone company in California's construction industry landscape.

The Solis Park campus, created by PJHM Architects, Inc., has seven buildings totaling 108,000 square feet of instructional space, including a daycare center.

Solis Park also has a commissary, design laboratories, special instruction rooms, a science and art patio, a fitness facility, and an indoor gym in addition to the childcare sections. A contemporary innovation lab will also offer training opportunities in engineering, robotics, and video creation.

The layout of PJHM is intended to promote cooperation, creativity, and learning. The architect and C.W. Driver staff made sure the school met the requirements outlined by the Collaborative for High-Performance Schools (CHPS), which aims to improve an educational building's energy efficiency and make use of the safest building materials.

Today, kindergarten through fifth graders attend the school. The Orange County campus will shortly be occupied by 6th through 8th graders.

The completion was announced by Tom Jones, project executive at C.W. Driver Companies. "We have a strong passion for building schools at C.W. Driver, knowing that our work will provide children a safe and modern place to learn for many years to come," he said.

The external building finishes and site work required to merge together in one continuous school design, according to Jonathan Keene, senior project manager at C.W. Driver, in a later comment sent via email to School Construction News.

 “The finishes included exterior metal panel systems, aluminum wood planks assemblies, plaster, exterior bi-fold aluminum doors, a dynamic paint scheme, and five different types of flatwork finishes,” said Keene. “With so much going on concurrently at all seven buildings, the amount of coordination amongst the trades, procurement of different materials, and simultaneously holding to a high level of quality control made for a unique challenge not faced with many other K-8 campus builds.”

Keene and his team also had to deal with the installation of a new solar system in each of Solis Park's parking lots, a 40-foot clock tower, covered pathways, and other logistical obstacles. 

C.W. Driver's other educational construction projects in California include CSU San Bernardino's Coyote Village and Coyote Commons (also with SCB Architects), MiraCosta College's Chemistry & Biotechnology Building, Cal Poly Pomona's Student Services Building, and Chapman University's Keck Center for Science and Engineering.

Engineering News Record named the company one of the Top 150 General Contractors and Top 100 Construction Managers. Their California offices are located in Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga, Anaheim, San Diego, and Carlsbad.