| Northwood High School, Irvine, California |
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Information AboutNorthwood High School, Irvine, California |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NORTHWOOD HIGH SCHOOL, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA | |
| educational institutions established in 1999 | |
| irvine, california | |
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ACHIEVEMENTS Every year, dozens of Northwood High students receive major academic awards such as the National Merit Scholarship . The school has also been recently recognized as a California Distinguished School . Its successful athletic teams include Football , Basketball , Volleyball , Soccer , Cross Country , and Softball . Many academic teams such as Model United Nations (MUN), Junior Statesmen Of America (JSA), Science Olympiad , and the Speech and Debate team are acclaimed as well. In 2005, the Varsity football team went to the CIF Div.IX finals for the first time in school history, but lost to Tesoro High School team. The Varsity football team was led by Stuart Sharpe and Michael Ciaccio . LOCATION AND LAYOUT Northwood High School sits in a narrow ravine in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, surrounded by working Avocado groves (which are now mostly chopped down). This site had been designated for a high school from the very beginning as part of the Irvine Company 's master plan, which was drafted in 1960 . So, when the school opened in 1999 , it had been destined to be in that spot for some 39 years. The school was one of the last major projects by architect William Blurock . Its spartan, blocky, stucco-covered buildings were most likely inspired by the work of Ricardo Legorreta , architect of the similarly-designed The Market Place shopping complex which is only four blocks from the school. The school is based heavily on 1950s architecture, incorporating such elements of that period as teal-tinted glass, steel louvers over high windows, glass-block panels, and Poul Henningsen -style lighting fixtures. The school was designed in a circular fashion around a central courtyard, in similar fashion as the University Of California, Irvine , in an attempt to acclimate students to the layout of a college campus. The shapes and layout of the buildings are strictly conformed to imaginary radial lines emanating from the central court. This courtyard has at its center a very large Coast Live Oak , which was removed and transported from the nearby hills at a reputed cost of $10,000. This tree in effect became the schools "second mascot". The school's theater department, for instance, produces its plays under the name "Oak Tree Productions". The school won numerous awards for its design within the first four years of its existence. In 2002 the names of the school's first graduating class were inscribed onto bricks and placed in a series of eight radial spokes around the Oak Tree. Although the school was built without a swimming pool, there was always the intention of building one. The space set aside for a future pool was temporarily occupied by three tennis courts (the school had four others which were meant to be permanent). In 2002 , the decision was made to keep the tennis courts, as they saw more use than was expected, and the pool site was moved to the lower half of the parking lot, which was already deemed as too small by most students, and plans were made to annex the flat parcel of orange groves immediately above the property for an expanded parking lot. The pool was built in 2003 . TRIVIA
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