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
| Aug 11, 2010
Nursing home turned charter school opens in Dorchester, Mass.
Cambridge, Mass.-based HMFH Architects spearheaded the design for the conversion of a former nursing home in Dorchester, Mass., to learning and community space for the Neighborhood House Charter School. The pre-K—8 school has two classrooms for each elementary grade level, clusters of middle school classrooms, a cafeteria, media center, and art, computer, music and science classrooms.
| Aug 11, 2010
Modest recession for education construction
Construction spending for education expanded modestly but steadily through March, while at the same time growth for other institutional construction had stalled earlier in 2009. Education spending is now at or near the peak for this building cycle. The value of education starts is off 9% year-to-date compared to 2008.
| Aug 11, 2010
Las Vegas high school focuses on careers in justice, emergency response
McCarthy Building Cos., St. Louis, recently completed construction on the 130,700-sf Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy, a Las Vegas high school that focuses on service career pathways in 911 dispatch training, law enforcement, crime scene analysis, emergency medical training, and computer forensics.
| Aug 11, 2010
Three Schools checking into L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel site
Pasadena-based Gonzalez Goodale Architects is designing three new schools for Los Angeles Unified School District's Central Wilshire District. The $400 million campus, located on the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, will house a K-5 elementary school, a middle school, a high school, a shared recreation facility (including soccer field, 25-meter swimming pool, two gymnasiums), and a new publ...
| Aug 11, 2010
7 Keys to Unlocking Energy Efficiency in Schools
Today’s best K-12 schools are embracing the sustainability ethos in their design and construction, and that can mean a healthier, more comfortable indoor environment and improved learning. Some studies contend that ample amounts of daylighting, for example, lead to higher test scores. High-performance HVAC systems that constantly draw fresh air into a classroom seem to help both teachers ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Blue-Light Schoolhouses
Add the explosion in the number of school-aged kids nationally to the glut of huge, vacant stores in many communities and what do you get? Big boxes being turned into schools. For districts facing population pressure, these empty retail buildings can be the key to creating classrooms quickly, and at a significant cost advantage.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Green Building
27. Next-Generation Green Roofs Sprout up in New York New York is not particularly known for its green roofs, but two recent projects may put the Big Apple on the map. In spring 2010, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will debut one of the nation's first fully walkable green roofs. Located across from the Juilliard School in Lincoln Center's North Plaza, Illumination Lawn will consist ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Dream Fields, Lone Star Style
How important are athletic programs to U.S. school districts? Here's one leading indicator: In 2005, the National Football League sold 17 million tickets. That same year, America's high schools sold an estimated 225 million tickets to football games, according to the American Football Coaches Association.
| Aug 11, 2010
Back to Nature: Can wood construction create healthier, more productive learning environments?
Can the use of wood in school construction create healthier, safer, more productive learning environments? In Japan, there's an ongoing effort by government officials to construct school buildings with wood materials and finishes—everything from floors and ceilings to furniture and structural elements—in the belief that wood environments have a positive impact on students.
| Aug 11, 2010
High School in a Hurry
One of the more compelling arguments for charter schools is their theoretical ability to streamline decision making. Eliminate all those layers of bureaucratic fat that clog the arteries of most public school systems, the argument goes, and decisions can be made to flow much more smoothly, even when it comes to designing and building a major school project.
