Main Architecture and Design The School Where Form Bridges

Golden Bridges and Dandelion Preschool seek to provide affordable, developmentally appropriate education, presented by Waldorf-trained teachers, to the southern neighborhoods of San Francisco. We offer an education based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner that nourishes children’s capacities physically, emotionally, and intellectually, cultivating skills of head, heart and hands. In building and sustaining bridges between the school, families, and the local communities, we are preparing children to be productive global citizens and stewards of the Earth.

 

Children are the future of humanity – so if we want to cultivate a sustainable society where people are connected to our food and the land, it is critical to raise a generation of children who understand how to be good stewards of the earth. That’s why we’re very excited about this innovative urban farm school being built in San Francisco, California that will educate preschoolers through 8th graders with an ecology farm curriculum based on Waldorf Education. 

Project architect Stanley Saitowitz of Natoma Architects just unveiled plans for a stunning new plant-covered “living building” for the site that will house classrooms and act as a gathering space for the community at the farm. Tucked away on a hidden lot at 203 Cotter Street, in San Francisco’s Mission Terrace neighborhood is an urban farm that kindergartners, first and second graders at Golden Bridges school tend on a daily basis, growing kale, zucchini, onions, and other vegetables and herbs. 

The fledgling school with 55 students has been tending sections of the 1 acre lot for the past two years, while the school has been trying to design classroom buildings for the site that will serve the children and the unique character of the neighborhood. After much time at the drawing board, input from the community, and many changes in design, the school finally unveiled plans to house the nation’s first urban farm grade school in an innovative living structure that is as much landscape as it is a building.

 

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