This 1600sf courtyard Pavilion is the latest collaboration in a 20-year partnership between DNM Architecture and the Lycée Français de San Francisco – a French immersion school for students in preschool through Grade 12 and part of a worldwide network of accredited French schools.

Located in the western “Sunset” district of San Francisco, the school’s listed historic building features an open courtyard that was underused due to the realities of San Francisco’s famously unpredictable fog (known locally as “Karl”).  The new DNM-designed pavilion is structurally freestanding inside of the courtyard, attached only on one side to the non-historic lobby of the 1974 auditorium, and offers students a tempered, semi-enclosed space for lunch, study, and other activities. Adjacent to the auditorium lobby, it also provides space for receptions and other school events.

Consistent with the Lycée’s and DNM’s ongoing commitment to sustainable design, the Pavilion features a solar glass roof by Onyx Solar Glass generating a net-positive electricity over the course of the year. The timber trusses and other framing members are fabricated using FSC certified lumber from Western Wood Trusses, and the Pavilion floor is composed of permeable pavers set in sand.

“We are very proud of this latest addition to the Lycée campus and the trust they continue to place in our firm,” says DNM Architecture president and founder David Marlatt, AIA. “The Pavilion will host a variety of activities and enhance the student experience.