Ralph Waldo Emerson Community Charter School (formerly Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School and commonly referred to as Emerson) is a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

in the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...

in Westwood,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, United States. It was designed by famed architect

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; 8 April 1892 – 16 April 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. His most ...

and was named in honor of

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

, the American author, poet, and philosopher. The school offers special academic programs, including the Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA), the

School for Advanced Studies The School for Advanced Studies (SAS) is a dual-enrollment secondary school in Miami, Florida. It is a part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools System and is located at five campuses of Miami Dade College: Homestead campus, Kendall campus, ...

(SAS), and the Individualized Honors Program (IHP).

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In 1971, Raitt released her Bonnie Raitt (album), self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed Americana (mu ...

both attended Emerson.

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

, albeit only one semester, and

La Toya Jackson La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer and television personality. The fifth child and middle daughter of the Jackson family, Jackson first gained recognition on the family's variety television series, ''The Jacksons (TV ...

, as well as the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers,

Anthony Kiedis Anthony Kiedis ( ; born November 1, 1962) is an American musician and lead vocalist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis and his fellow band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Kiedis spent his youth in ...

, also studied there. On June 10, 2014, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board granted the school Affiliate Charter status, thus adding Emerson to Los Angeles' growing roster of

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

. Emerson's Performing Arts Academy (terminated in 2012) offered classes including Musical Theater, Stage Design, Costume Design, and Dance.

Attendance area

Neighborhoods served by Emerson Middle include West Los Angeles, Beverly Glen,

Beverly Hills Post Office Beverly Hills Post Office (BHPO) is the name given to a section of Los Angeles, California, that lies within the 90210 ZIP code, assigned to the Beverly Hills Post Office. Los Angeles mailing addresses with the ZIP code 90210 may be writte ...

Westwood, Bel-Air, Sawtelle,

Benedict Canyon Benedict Canyon is an area in the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. To the north of the Benedict Canyon neighborhood is the neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, to the west is the neighborhood of Beverly Glen, to the east are Beverl ...

, the Wilshire Corridor, and

Holmby Hills Holmby Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. The neighborhood was developed in the early 20th century by the Janss Investment Company, which developed the rest of Westwood, Los Angeles as well as oth ...

. Also included in its service area are canyon neighborhoods adjacent to the city of

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

; since the neighborhoods are in Los Angeles, the students are not in the

Beverly Hills Unified School District The Beverly Hills Unified School District (abbreviated BHUSD) is a public school district based in the city of Beverly Hills, California. It was unified into an elementary and high school district in 1936. Serving the city of Beverly Hills, it ...

boundaries.

Feeder schools

Public elementary Schools that feed into Emerson include: * Fairburn Elementary School * Saturn Elementary School * Warner Avenue Elementary School * Westwood Charter School * Nora Sterry Elementary School * Carthay Elementary School * Brockton Elementary School. Students that graduate from Emerson often go to

University High School University High School may refer to: Australia * University High School, Melbourne, Victoria Canada * University Hill Secondary School, Vancouver, British Columbia United States Arizona * University High School (Tolleson) * University High Sc ...

Hamilton High School Hamilton High School may refer to: United States Alabama * Hamilton High School (Alabama) in Hamilton Arizona * Hamilton High School (Chandler, Arizona) in Chandler Arkansas * Lake Hamilton High School in Pearcy California * Hamilton High Sc ...

, or Venice High School

Architecture

Emerson Middle School's main building was designed by architect

in the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, and built between 1937 and 1938. It is a two-story, steel-framed structure with strong horizontals. The first-floor classrooms have large, 15-foot glass and steel sliding doors that open to extend the spaces to the outside, while the second-floor classrooms have stairs leading to rooftop terraces. Due to its streamlined and clean appearance, "Emerson Middle School was considered a leading example of 1930s

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

," along with

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

Fallingwater Fallingwater is a Historic house museum, house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of Greater Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, i ...

House and

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

.Barbara Mac Lamprecht, "Richard Neutra: Complete Works," Taschen Books, 2000. p.140.

References

External links

Emerson Middle School
{{coord, 34.053954, -118.436092, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-CA, display=title International style architecture in California Los Angeles Unified School District schools Public middle schools in California Middle schools in Los Angeles County, California Westwood, Los Angeles Richard Neutra buildings