Groundbreaking Launches $21 Million Rebuild of OCDE's Rancho Soñado Outdoor Education Center
The Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) has broken ground on a new $21 million education center at Rancho Soñado, its roughly 110-acre outdoor education site in the Santa Ana Mountains. The property has been home to OCDE's Inside the Outdoors program since 2006; the Bond Fire of December 2020 destroyed two of its three structures and killed many of the program's animal ambassadors.
The rebuilt center will include new classroom and administrative buildings, a multipurpose environmental science building, an outdoor dining pavilion, a covered learning area, four teaching pavilions along the trails and a 133-seat amphitheater, along with expanded parking and access-road improvements. Buildings will use noncombustible materials such as concrete block, steel and metal roofing, with interior sprinklers, an exterior ground-wetting system and a new on-site fire hydrant. C.W. Driver is the construction partner and tBP/Architecture leads the design; the Orange County Board of Education approved the construction agreements in September, and work is expected to continue through December 2027.
Founded in 1974, Inside the Outdoors has reached more than 3.5 million students and now serves about 100,000 students each school year through classroom and field programs across Orange County.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：圣安娜山脉西尔维拉多峡谷的山间步道与植被。图片来源：Steve Riggins，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 3.0。Photo: A trail through Silverado Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains. Image: Steve Riggins, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
