School Construction Systems Development project

From 1961–1967, in the U.S., the School Construction Systems Development (SCSD) project created an innovative, flexible, and prefabricated architectural building system that ignited an international interest in systems-based architecture. The project emerged in response to the post-WWII baby boom, the mainstreaming of progressive education, the industrialization of building materials, and a nationwide search to build schools faster and cheaper. In 1961 Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York proposed the use of stock plans (the same architectural plans on different sites). In response, the Architectural Forum and the Ford Foundation's Educational Facilities Laboratories (EFL) sponsored a conference of leading school administrators, architects, manufacturing executives, and engineers to devise alternative solutions.

The group agreed that a system of building components specifically designed for schools was an option worth exploring. Architect Ezra Ehrenkrantz (who later founded EE&K Architects) had previously studied the British CLASP system and other precedents and was charged with undertaking a feasibility study of the proposal. The project proved to be feasible and the SCSD was launched in 1962 with significant start-up funding from the Ford Foundation, "1) to create a system of standardized parts with which architects can design individual schools; 2) to reduce the cost of school construction by obtaining volume production of standard parts; and 3) to reduce the time needed for the construction of a school."

California was chosen as the initial test location for the system and Stanford University's School Planning Laboratory acted as the grant administrator. A follow-up study of the British prefabricated schools highlighted lessons drawn from these government-led projects to an American, market-driven approach. To entice manufacturers to invest in the necessary research and development for new building components, school districts from around the state signed a Joint Powers Agreement and formed the First California Commission on School Construction Systems. Along with this group of school administrators, SCSD staff members (Ezra Ehrenkrantz, James Laurits, John Boice, Christopher Arnold, Visscher Boyd, Vernon (Carl) Bryant, Bert Ray, and Peter Kastl) assembled education requirements and performance specifications for the new system.