Mario Ciampi, Sonoma School (1955), photo courtesy of the architect.97-year-old Mario Ciampi, FAIA, architect of the extraordinary Berkeley Art Museum, designed numerous innovative schools in the late 1950s and 1960s. Among them are the Westmoor School with its precast concrete barrel vaults spanning sixty feet, the Fernando Rivera Elementary School, with a prefabricated wood folded plate roof, and the circular Vista Mar School, all in Daly City, California; and an elementary school for Ciampi’s hometown of Sonoma. All are characterized by novel structural systems integrating clerestory lighting, leaving large wall surfaces that incorporate significant artwork in relief.
Mario Ciampi, Fernando Rivera Elementary (1960), photo courtesy of the architect.
Mario Ciampi, Westmoor School (1959), photo courtesy of the architect.
Mario Ciampi, Vista Mar Elementary School, photo courtesy of the architect.
Mario Ciampi, Sonoma School (1955), photo courtesy of the architect.Originally published in 4th quarter 2004, in arcCA 04.4, “School Daze.”
