Sotomayor High School

Sonia Sotomayor High School is Northside ISD’s 12th comprehensive high school, situated on a 75-acre site. At 430,000 sf, it is designed for a student capacity of 2800.

The school is organized around two courtyards that serve as outdoor learning and creative centers for students; on the interior, the circulation revolves around a three-story daylit main stair that provides gathering space, visual connection, and graphic identity for the school. The building is anchored by an athletic area of two gyms with dressing facilities on one side, and a 900-seat auditorium with full fly loft and orchestra pit on the other.

Sotomayor is also designed to the new NISD high school standards with an added security lobby at the front entrance; the lobby is bullet resistant and automatically locks before classes start in the morning.

Programmatically, what makes Sotomayor different is the focus on spaces designed around current career demands: laboratory sciences – including provisions for a science garden, robotics, culinary arts, a reinvigorated construction trades program, and the District’s first renewable energy program.