A new 75,000-sf Early Learning Campus, designed specifically for The Awty International School’s pre-K through first grade students, recently opened in Houston. Shepley Bulfinch’s design created the new campus from a vacant 30-year-old office park that sits on a 5.25-acre site.
The office park had three existing buildings in a U-shaped configuration that created a natural enclosed pocket for Shepley Bulfinch to focus the learning and enrichment facilities for the 345 pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students. Two-thirds of the existing parking lot in this pocket was replaced with synthetic turf to create a 20,000-sf outdoor play space. The remaining third was left for use as a visitor parking lot. This green space features outdoor classrooms, flexible learning spaces, and a European-style plaza with benches and pavers. All but four of the campus’s 26 classrooms open up to this fenced green space.
The outdoor play and learning area has a bicycle/tricycle path winding around play structures and under bridges, two playgrounds, a small soccer field, and basketball and play courts. There are also student gardens and covered pavilions with wooden decks to help facilitate outdoor learning.
View from multipurpose room across Boulevard towards Building C Entry at the Awty International School in Houston. Photo: Shepley Bulfinch.
In order to make the existing office buildings feel like a school environment for young children, the exterior glass, sign bands, and soffit panels were removed and the buildings were clad with vertical perforated multi-colored translucent resin panels. The outdoor classrooms use the same resin panels for roofing in a shingled pattern. Security fencing, check-in points, and separate entries and circulation for carpool drop-off, visitors, and faculty improve vehicular circulation and campus safety.
In addition to the 26 classrooms, there are also two multi-purpose rooms, art and music rooms, a teaching kitchen, a library, a media room, and dining facilities for students and faculty. A two-story gymnasium features a rock-climbing wall, multipurpose courts for basketball and volleyball, and a performance stage. The classrooms are linked via internal doors through all three buildings and large glass windows, skylights, and open spaces provide plentiful natural light.
J.E. Dunn Construction was the general contractor for the project while Cardno and Burns DeLatte & McCoy, Inc. handled structural engineering and MEP engineering duties respectively.
Related Stories
Building Tech | Jun 26, 2019
Modular construction can deliver projects 50% faster
Modular construction can deliver projects 20% to 50% faster than traditional methods and drastically reshape how buildings are delivered, according to a new report from McKinsey & Co.
K-12 Schools | May 17, 2019
Tall schools, tight spaces: Giving students access to the outdoors requires considerable creativity
Verticality has some plusses, according to AEC firms that have engaged such projects recently.
K-12 Schools | Apr 25, 2019
How outdoor environments provide value to K-12 learning, health, and safety
Outdoor spaces at school offer students key opportunities to learn, problem solve, and mentally refresh.
K-12 Schools | Jan 21, 2019
Safer K-12 design: School should feel – and look – like school
In an age during which stories of bullying, school shootings, and mental health concerns are all too common, designers have a critical role to play in crafting K-12 schools that simultaneously promote engaged learning and student safety.
K-12 Schools | Nov 5, 2018
Modernizing schools is paying off in creating better learning and teaching environments
A new paper reports on a recent study of nine schools in Washington DC that gauged occupants’ perceptions.
K-12 Schools | Jul 26, 2018
K-12 market trends 2018: Common areas enable hands-on learning
Modern designs emphasize social and collaboration spaces outside the classroom.
| May 30, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: From micro schools to tiny houses: What’s driving the downsizing economy?
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), micro-buildings design expert Aeron Hodges, AIA, explores the key drivers of the micro-buildings movement, and how the trend is spreading into a wide variety of building typologies.
| May 24, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: Security and the built environment: Insights from an embassy designer
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), embassy designer Tom Jacobs explores ways that provide the needed protection while keeping intact the representational and inspirational qualities of a design.
K-12 Schools | Jan 25, 2018
Cost estimating for K-12 school projects: An invaluable tool for budget management
Clients want to be able to track costs at every stage of a project, and cost estimates (current and life cycle) are valuable planning and design tools, writes LS3P's Ginny Magrath, AIA.
K-12 Schools | Jan 24, 2018
Hawaii’s first net-zero public school
G70 is the architect, planner, and civil engineer of record for the project.
