Clarity of program and systems are at the core of this building. Program is made hierarchically legible to students at three levels: individual classrooms, grade level groupings of four classrooms about shared space, and collection of grade levels about the open central stair. The infrastructure of the building is evident throughout, including the bearing wall and plank structure, ventilation and power, and pressure equalized slate or brick walls. Materials are self-finishing, codified for exterior and interior purposes, yet enduring and vibrant.
Site
Situated at the edge of a newly created drive in the center of the upper campus, the new middle school separates what was a large undefined space into two separate campus lawns: an entry green at the front and a campus "common" to the rear.
Teaching Architecture
The organization and constructive logic of the building were developed to allow comprehension by middle school age children. The building is part of the educational experience. It speaks metaphorically to the physical and social development of middle school students.
The pedagogical criteria centered on flexibility within the classroom unit and the desire to gather classes together for group and cross-teaching arrangements. The cellular structure of the school is based upon the unit of the classroom clustered in arrangements of four per floor (per grade) around a group gathering space, supplemented by a teachers' workroom, counseling room and locker areas. Each cluster is stacked; they are separated from the administration and specialty classrooms by a central stair and services core containing bathrooms and an elevator.
Center
A key element in encouraging the interactive social structure of the new school is the central stair. As the primary vertical path vertically through this building the stair is a place to gather and be seen. The adjacent resource center, which encompasses the first floor hall and is open to the second floor hallway above, contains reading areas, a meeting space, computer classroom and stacks. Literally and figuratively, the resource center is the heart of the new school.
Systems
Exposed systems delineate classrooms and specialty rooms. Systems - structural, mechanical and material - are organized and layered to code the building and the methods of its construction. The primary structure is ground-face block bearing walls supporting pre-cast concrete plank floors. Pre-cast concrete lintels and beams span openings through bearing walls or replace bearing walls at the double-cell units. Exposed ducts, sprinklers, electrical trays and lighting complete the delineation.
Walls
Infill walls between bearing walls on the interior and exterior close the classroom cells. Exterior slate shingles similar in color to the exterior brick and supported on frame walls codify infills. Lead-coated copper surrounds the window recesses and transforms flashing into frames for shingled wall panels.
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