In Warrensville Heights, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, a $31.7 million project has completed a newly constructed middle school and high school accommodating over 1,000 students in grades 6-12.
In 2016, the Warrensville Heights School District engaged Moody Nolan to assist in master planning and to design the combined middle and high school buildings, while incorporating input gathered from the community and teachers. Construction lasted from late 2019 to mid-2023.
The high school and middle school have been designed with flexible learning environments that include open collaboration areas, small group rooms, and maker spaces intended to foster diverse teaching and learning approaches. The project also renovated the high school’s existing science wing.
Offerings include culinary arts, restaurant, firefighting training, auditorium, and an expanded high school gym.
Adjacent to the auditorium lie the academic zones, with general education classrooms, specialized rooms, and versatile spaces on each floor. Each academic zone also has a central learning commons to extend the classroom environment.
The media center, which is centrally located in the academic area for everyone to use, features porcelain tile learning stairs with flexible seating, promoting both collaboration and quiet study. Surrounding the media center are the TV studio, career area, and visual design studio.
At the school’s request, the project also includes an e-sports center for the school’s e-sports team and gaming club. The center features both individual and group gaming stations for the virtual competitions and overlooks the learning stair in the media center for spectators.
A corridor connects the schools to the adjacent community center. A butterfly canopy at the high school and community entrances impacts the interior design, reflecting light through its angled walls.
Durable, low-maintenance interior finishes, such as LVT flooring with acoustical backing, reduce noise transmission from floor to floor and eliminate the need for waxing, saving the school district time and money each summer.
Outside, the complex features a football stadium with an eight-lane running track, an athletics plaza, baseball and softball fields, and a bus maintenance garage.
On the Building Team:
Owner: Warrensville Heights City School District Board of Education
Design architect and architect of record: Moody Nolan
MEP and structural engineer: Osborn Engineering
General contractor: Infinity Construction Company
Related Stories
| Jun 12, 2014
Austrian university develops 'inflatable' concrete dome method
Constructing a concrete dome is a costly process, but this may change soon. A team from the Vienna University of Technology has developed a method that allows concrete domes to form with the use of air and steel cables instead of expensive, timber supporting structures.
| Jun 9, 2014
Green Building Initiative launches Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors program
The new program focuses exclusively on the sustainable design and construction of interior spaces in nonresidential buildings and can be pursued by both building owners and individual lessees of commercial spaces.
| May 29, 2014
7 cost-effective ways to make U.S. infrastructure more resilient
Moving critical elements to higher ground and designing for longer lifespans are just some of the ways cities and governments can make infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate change, writes Richard Cavallaro, President of Skanska USA Civil.
| May 23, 2014
Top interior design trends: Gensler, HOK, FXFOWLE, Mancini Duffy weigh in
Tech-friendly furniture, “live walls,” sit-stand desks, and circadian lighting are among the emerging trends identified by leading interior designers.
| May 22, 2014
Big Data meets data centers – What the coming DCIM boom means to owners and Building Teams
The demand for sophisticated facility monitoring solutions has spurred a new market segment—data center infrastructure management (DCIM)—that is likely to impact the way data center projects are planned, designed, built, and operated.
| May 20, 2014
Kinetic Architecture: New book explores innovations in active façades
The book, co-authored by Arup's Russell Fortmeyer, illustrates the various ways architects, consultants, and engineers approach energy and comfort by manipulating air, water, and light through the layers of passive and active building envelope systems.
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 15, 2014
'Virtually indestructible': Utah architect applies thin-shell dome concept for safer schools
At $94 a square foot and "virtually indestructible," some school districts in Utah are opting to build concrete dome schools in lieu of traditional structures.
| May 13, 2014
19 industry groups team to promote resilient planning and building materials
The industry associations, with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, have issued a joint statement on resilience, pushing design and building solutions for disaster mitigation.
| May 11, 2014
Final call for entries: 2014 Giants 300 survey
BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 survey forms are due Wednesday, May 21. Survey results will be published in our July 2014 issue. The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
