Program Summary:
The New South Pre-K/8 was designed as a 290,000 sq ft school to house independent elementary and middle schools under one roof with shared core functions.
Program Statement:
The design for the New South Elementary and Middle Schools challenged preconceptions in its response to pragmatic, programmatic, and budgetary requirements. The project required the creation of two new schools, one a prek-4 elementary and the other a 5-8 middle school, on a single parcel of land. The solution sought to identify elements of redundancy where cost savings could be had if eliminated, such as the kitchen and media-center support spaces. It also sought to identify areas where the individual school programs could be enhanced through a merger, these would include spaces like the auditorium, art classrooms, and music classrooms that were not in each program.
The need for each school to maintain an independent identity coupled with the desire to create a unified design across the campus lead to the use of complimentary colors to represent the identity of the individual schools and a third color to represent those items common to both. Against a unified neutral palate these colors became an wayfinding and orientation device.
The massing was conceptualized as 5 monolithic parallel program bars threaded together through the addition of a central spine. Carved moments in the monolithic bars reveal occasions of brilliant color identifying the individual grade structures while the central spine is clad in the third color.
As can be seen in the thoughtful use of circles throughout the design to act as foil against the strong horizontality; the goal of the design solution was to create a school that embodied a sophisticated playfulness.
The New South Pre-K/8 was designed as a 290,000 sq ft school to house independent elementary and middle schools under one roof with shared core functions.
Program Statement:
The design for the New South Elementary and Middle Schools challenged preconceptions in its response to pragmatic, programmatic, and budgetary requirements. The project required the creation of two new schools, one a prek-4 elementary and the other a 5-8 middle school, on a single parcel of land. The solution sought to identify elements of redundancy where cost savings could be had if eliminated, such as the kitchen and media-center support spaces. It also sought to identify areas where the individual school programs could be enhanced through a merger, these would include spaces like the auditorium, art classrooms, and music classrooms that were not in each program.
The need for each school to maintain an independent identity coupled with the desire to create a unified design across the campus lead to the use of complimentary colors to represent the identity of the individual schools and a third color to represent those items common to both. Against a unified neutral palate these colors became an wayfinding and orientation device.
The massing was conceptualized as 5 monolithic parallel program bars threaded together through the addition of a central spine. Carved moments in the monolithic bars reveal occasions of brilliant color identifying the individual grade structures while the central spine is clad in the third color.
As can be seen in the thoughtful use of circles throughout the design to act as foil against the strong horizontality; the goal of the design solution was to create a school that embodied a sophisticated playfulness.
Lead Project Designer at CDP.
Additional architectural visualization credits: Margaux Verdera, Dianna Osickey.
A dynamic circular canopy system was designed with integrated lighting and benches for installation at the entrances of both the Elementary and the Middle Schools. The independent entrances are at either end of the central spine which is clad in a glazed green block. The glazed block was used throughout the project to provide moments of color. For each color (blue, orange, green), several shades of each color were used to create depth and variation in a pixilated field of unified color.
The program was divided into 5 parallel bars; two for the elementary and two for the middle, and one central bar for shared program. The bars were set at a spacing to allow for ample natural lighting into all spaces and to create comfortable courtyard zones between. The bars were then carved to create entrances, outdoor classrooms, and to express vertical circulation. The addition of a central circulation spine threads the program together.
Color was used throughout to give separate identities to each school under the one roof. That color can be seen from the signage used to designate the two separate entrance drives to the moments of color that is revealed when the forms are carved away. The site design provides for separate car queuing for each grade structure, a centralized bus loading and unloading zone, and age-appropriate playgrounds that extend from their respective classroom bars.
Each school makes up a smaller neighborhood within the larger campus with easy access from classrooms to core functions: gymnasium, cafeteria, auditorium, library, art, and music classrooms. The school is designed for easy after hours use by the community in designated zones (library, auditorium, cafeterias, and gymnasiums) while providing necessary security to others.
Super graphics are used throughout the building, like the one seen here marking the administration office. Located opposite the entrance in the transparent space between the gymnasium and the classroom bar for each school, the administration office is in a prime location for ease of access for visitors and control of security. In a similar way, nursing stations for the respective schools are in the spaces between classroom bars and the central core bar.
One given on the project was the use of interior CMU walls for both pragmatic and budget reasons. The introduction of 4in block courses and the striking of the horizontal joints while leaving verticals flush created a striated wall pattern. A seamless interior to exterior transition was achieved by continuing the striated block pattern to the exterior with the use of a CMU block veneer. To further reinforce the horizontality of the monolithic bars, lengths of split face block was introduced in bands that pulled from the face of the adjacent block to add shadow, texture, and visual interest.
To enhance the learning environment the building layout allows for substantial courtyards to occur between classroom bars. This allows for natural light to permeate deep into the building and views out to the courtyards. The design allows for outdoor learning opportunities, both informally in the courtyard space but also more formally in outdoor spaces specifically designed for instruction. Adjacent to the art spaces, a trellis provides shading for large expanses of glass and allows instruction to spill outdoors, blurring the boundary between interior and exterior spaces.
An important step in creating peaceful yet invigorating spaces that foster learning and encourage creativity is controlling the visual clutter inherent in most grade schools. To respond to this challenge ideas of great thinkers and quotes from inspirational speakers throughout history are transformed into moments of visual interest and mental stimulation in breakout spaces within the classroom corridors. The supergraphics will be subtle in nature, using tone-on-tone effects to create layering and visual texture.
Color plays an integral role in identification and wayfinding in the design for the New South Elementary and Middle School. A pixilated floor pattern of shades of gray unifies the various program elements across the entire project with accent colors signifying specific zones. Accent colors of multiple shades of a single color are similarly used on walls throughout to give visual interest and act as an organizational device. The variations of a color is then picked up in elements such as lockers, desk chairs, and auditorium seating.
Glazed block from the exterior is pulled into the stairs to create pixilated fields of visual grounding and to further blur the interior / exterior boundary. The stair railing details employ circles in a playful pattern with the interior surfaces painted with accent colors used throughout the building.
Tone-on-tone supergraphics used on the walls in the library capture passages from the pages of literature and continues the subtle visual layering used elsewhere in the design. The circulation desk in the library and the reception desks in the administrative offices play off the language of the building. Referencing sections from the Dewey Decimal System gives order to a seemingly random series of recessed slices of color against a neutral field.
The Elementary and Middle School Libraries open to a gracious loggia that serves as a loading / unloading zone for buses and as an after-hours community entrance for library and auditorium usage. A light well is cut into the canopy with a rock garden beneath, reinforcing the blurring of interior and exterior, blending of natural and man-made, and synthesis of calming and energetic.
