Terra Linda High School opens $27M competition-size gym

Work is complete on an athletic center for high school sports in San Rafael that will also double as a community refuge in an emergency.

The $27 million Terra Linda High School competition-size gymnasium has been in preliminary use since the beginning of the year. An official grand opening once the work was finished was held in April.

Unlike the school’s former outdated and deteriorating athletic center, the new 22,000-square-foot gym complex can host league sporting events. It is also big enough to accommodate the entire 1,300 high school student population for assemblies and other gatherings, said Katy Dunlap, school principal.

“Our new competition gym at Terra Linda benefits the entire San Rafael community,” Dunlap said.

“Student-athletes now have two full-size gyms on campus to utilize for practices and games,” she said. “This provides much greater flexibility — we can run two sporting events simultaneously, thus allowing students to finish at an earlier hour.”

The facility, financed with voter-approved Measure B bond funds, offers a gymnasium that is a regulation-size competition venue for basketball, volleyball and other athletic teams. Also, the complex includes three team rooms, a weight and cardio conditioning room, an athletic training center, office space, conference rooms and enhanced parking.

“This project successfully creates an improved new frontage environment for the TLHS campus,” Jim Hogeboom, superintendent of San Rafael City Schools, said in an email.

“It also benefits the neighborhood with the addition of a new two-way bicycle pedestrian pathway and underground utilities,” he said.

Hogeboom added that the gym meets regulations set up by the California Interscholastic Federation to qualify to host athletic events and league games.

Also, it is designed as a safety refuge for the community in the event of emergencies, Hogeboom said.

Rebecca Ellecamp, a spokesperson for project architect Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, said the facility meets state standards for resource conservation, renewable energy and sustainability set up by the nonprofit Collaboration for High Performance Schools.

That includes the use of reclaimed water, daylight-responsive lighting controls, low-flow plumbing fixtures and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems that are powered by 60% renewable energy, she said.

“It is design-ready for the potential future installation of solar and a micro-grid battery system,” she said.

Dunlap said the new gym will complement the school’s planned new aquatics center.

“The aquatics center is being board-approved in June,” Dunlap said. “Construction will be beginning in 2024.”