As a site adaptation, the planning process for this new elementary school included acceptance of given program and facility components and their relationships. Flexibility was afforded the project through the site selection process itself. Working with the District and the developer, we were able to explore numerous (more than 4 dozen) solutions with different ramifications upon site configuration, geometry and phasing considerations. Through exploration of various site configurations, we were able to acquire property which met the planning needs of the school while working with the developer in achieving the community master plan goals, including street configurations, utility infrastructure to support the campus, and balancing of significant soil import/export conditions. Because the design was a site adaptation, we were very confident of the probable construction costs with site development being the most significant design and budgetary challenge.
The site possesses a linear geometry allowing us to design a significant vehicle and pedestrian entry system that separates pedestrians, bus traffic, and visitor parking access, parent drop-off and kindergarten short-term parking. Classrooms and the multipurpose building form the core of the campus with administration and library support to the South and playgrounds to the North.
The selected site contained a significant mass-grading challenge due to nearly 35' of fall from the Southern to the Northern end of the site. We worked with the natural fall across the site, placing the administration building at the high point with a gradual step-down to the classroom buildings with another step-down to the multipurpose building resulting in an amphitheater style seating area focused on the multipurpose building's outdoor stage. The site was further sculpted to step down to the play areas, affording an elevated line-of-sight to the playfields. Berming was employed at the Northern tip of the site to address the final 8' of fall, which separates the playfields from the immediately adjacent street and homes, affording those homes a heightened sense of privacy.
The campus' lighting design is the primary sustainable elements of this school. All classrooms have suspended direct/indirect lighting with adjustable lighting or "scene" controls that the teacher can adjust based upon the light level of the room and to compliment the specific tasks reading, central instruction and/or projection. The design allows for lighting efficiency and appropriateness for the task being performed. In combination, the skylights substantially reduce the need for artificial lighting, and when lights are needed they perform more efficiently in support of the specific needs of the teacher.
