New guidelines for securing schools and community spaces released by the Door Security and Safety Foundation

The Door Security and Safety Foundation (DSSF), in collaboration with Door and Hardware Institute (DHI), recently released of “Are Your Door Openings Secure?.”

The document provides guidelines to equip school administrators, building management personnel, and community leaders with a clear roadmap to create a secure and safe environment. There is currently no national door security standard for community spaces such as schools, day care facilities, and office buildings. The lack of understanding and implementation of secure openings puts communities at risk and can lead to fear, according to a news release.

A 2022 Gallup poll found that 44% of parents of K-12 students report fearing for their child’s physical safety at school. Creating a secure space doesn’t need to be complicated, though.

A 2020 simulation experiment by the Department of Homeland Security showed that classroom doors that lock when closed had a “significant impact” on the outcome of an active school shooter event. But one in four U.S. public schools lack classroom doors that can be locked from the inside, according to the National Center on Education Statistics.

LPA Architects conducted a post-occupancy evaluation, or POE, of the eSTEM Academy, a new high school specializing in health/medical and design/engineering Career Technical Education, in Eastvale, Calif. The POE helped LPA, the Riverside County Office of Education, and the Corona-Norco Unified School District gain a better understanding of which design innovations—such as movable walls, flex furniture, collaborative spaces, indoor-outdoor activity areas, and a student union—enhanced the education program, and how well students and teachers used these innovations.

Exterior rendering of new K-12 school in Prince George's County in Maryland

K-12 Schools | Jun 29, 2021

A Maryland school system launches a P3 program to speed up K-12 school design, financing, and construction

Gilbane and Stantec are part of a consortium that breaks ground on six new schools this week.

Resiliency | Jun 24, 2021

Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]

New on HorizonTV, oceanographer John Englander discusses his latest book, which warns that, regardless of resilience efforts, sea levels will rise by meters in the coming decades. Adaptation, he says, is the key to future building design and construction.

A rendering of a new school campus with flexible indoor-outdoor teaching spaces

K-12 Schools | Jun 20, 2021

Los Angeles County issues design guidelines for extending PreK-12 learning to the outdoors

The report covers everything from funding and site prep recommendations to whether large rocks can be used as seating.

Exterior rendering of mass-timber TimberQuest school building

Wood | Jun 10, 2021

Three AEC firms launch a mass timber product for quicker school construction

TimberQuest brand seeks to avoid overinvestment in production that has plagued other CLT providers.

A digital twin of Marishal Square in Scotland

Digital Twin | May 24, 2021

Digital twin’s value propositions for the built environment, explained

Ernst & Young’s white paper makes its cases for the technology’s myriad benefits.

Daylighting | Mar 7, 2021

Texas intermediate school lets the sun really shine in

Solatube tubular daylighting devices bring sunlight into the two-story commons/media space for 600 students in grades 3-5 at Sunnyvale Intermediate School.