Case Study: Pali High rebuilds a school in four weeks with Gensler

Pali High rebuilds a 100,000-square-foot campus in 4 weeks with Gensler

Pali High, a high school in Santa Monica, California, faced a crisis when its campus was destroyed by wildfires, leaving over 2,500 students without a place to learn. The challenge was to quickly find and create a new, functional campus to restore this vital community hub. The school collaborated with the vendor Gensler for architectural and design services to address this urgent need.

Gensler transformed a vacant, 100,000-square-foot Sears department store into a fully functioning temporary school campus in just four weeks. The solution included creating 54 classrooms, specialized spaces for neurodiverse learners, and counseling areas. The project's impact was immense, successfully housing all students and staff while also creating a replicable model for using adaptive reuse as disaster-response infrastructure. Gensler's work received significant recognition, including being named #1 in Urban Development by Fast Company.

Pali High