ThinkingAhead

Designing and building schools that embracea 21st century approach to education.

'he challenge of designing build-ings that address the needsof the 21st century classroomcontinues to drive architects

and school administrators to reimag-ine even the most classic educationalspaces.

An example of this progressivismis the school library, where stacks ofbooks and a once universal quiet zonehave been replaced with a mixture ofspaces with varying noise levels.

"There's a lot of movement in thelibrary space, a lot of fluidity," saysKaren Gavigan, an information sci-ence professor at the University ofSouth Carolina. "Lots of differentthings going on. It's not the old 'Shh-hhh' library."

The name "library" could even beon its way to becoming archaic. BothK-12 and higher-education institu-tions are finding that "learning com-mons" is a more fitting description forthe space they have created.

But this revolution has expandedbeyond the library and is reshapingthe built environment on campusesacross the country. Educational pro-fessionals and architects are seeingbuilding designs that reflect the shifttoward simulated learning experiencesand more active engagement and col-laboration.

"Superintendents have seen it com-ing, but they didn't exactly know howto translate that into what it meant forthe architecture," says Tracy Eich, aprincipal with the SHW Group. "There

BY JILL NOLIN, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

would be project-based learning thatoccurred within the classroom, but atthe end of the day, the classroom sortof provided limitations for the teacherson what you could do in there."

Eich points to a project his firmis overseeing in Alvin, Texas, as anembodiment of how the engaged-learning model is molding the build-ing's architecture. Shadow CreekHigh School, which will open in the2016-2017 school year, is comprised offive houses. Each house contains twohubs joined by a centralized planningand workspace for teachers. About240 students are assigned to a hub.Each hub contains a variety of spacesfor direct instruction, studios, projectlabs called "maker's spaces," and smallseminar rooms.

The school layout may be a changefor the students, but it's also a radicaldeparture for teachers accustomed tohaving a sense of ownership over asingle classroom. To aid in the transi-tion, teacher training will accompanythe construction work as Alvin ISDdeploys the engaged-learning model atShadow Creek and, to varying degrees,other schools in the district over time.

The move toward more engagedlearning and simulated academy-stylespaces are the two emerging trendsEich said he sees in school construc-tion, as schools prepare students forjobs in the 21st century.

"The fact is that [today's students]think differently, communicate dif-ferently than we did," says Eich. "You

make things. You model things. Yousynthesize. You present your work.Those kinds of activities that [we] dodaily, you're trying to start exposingthem to that learning process."

"It's not just happening in a library.It's not just happening in a (careertechnical education) center. It's hap-pening across the board. Because atthe end of the day, it's about themunderstanding what the world is go-ing to be like," he adds. "To me, that'sone of the biggest things that's reallygoing to lead to the changes and thearchitectural responses that we'll startseeing from a design standpoint."

SECURITY CONCERNSARE UNIVERSAL

As new educational philosophiesopen up schools and place a highvalue on transparency, there also isa counteracting force at play. Grow-ing fears of the threat posed by anactive shooter, a terrorist attack andthe next dangerous storm have forcedarchitects and school administratorsto strike a balance between inspiringstudents to learn and protecting them.

The increased emphasis on securitycan be seen in the bond proposalsunder consideration throughout thecountry. And while constructionneeds varied from district to districtduring the last year - a period thatsaw $58.4 billion spent on schoolconstruction nationally - there wasat least one common denominatoramong even the most disparate dis-

Photos to the left: Mary Idenna Pew Library Learning and Information Commons. The SHW Group incorporated an AutomatedStorage and Retrieval System Into Grand Valley State university's new iibrary and freed up space tor new collaborative and socialspaces. The ASRS can store up to éOCOOO volumes. About 150,000 books remain in the library's browsable collection. Photos cour-tesy of Jomes Hoefner/SHW Group

MAY 2014 • ASUMAG.COM • AMERICAN SCHOOL & UNIVERSiTY 17

THINKING AHEADtricts: the desire for improved security.

There also are recurring patterns inhow funding earmarked for security isbeing used: increased control of buüd-ing access, increased use of technologyto improve security and creating moreplaces of refuge for students in theevent of a tornado or a terrorist attack.

"There's that continued level ofthreat that's presenting itself acrossAmerica," says Stan Rounds, superin-tendent of Las Cruces (N.M.) PublicSchools. "We haven't had significantthreats here, but we certainly want tobe able to control, record and assesssituations as they happen. This givesus ways of doing those three things."

In Las Cruces, $4.6 million of a $65million bond issue approved in Feb-ruary will go toward security-relatedimprovements, such as one-buttonelectronic lockdown capability, key-card access at secondary entry pointsand an additional 350 security camerasthat wül double the number of camerason the district's campuses and put cam-eras in all of the district's schools.

In some of the district's olderinner-city schools, outdated designsand add-ons over time have left theschool's administrative office buriedinside the interior of the buildings.The bond proceeds will cover theexpense of moving the offices at twoschools adjacent to the main entrance,which will help the district keep theschool accessible to the public whilesecuring the rest of the building.

"On one side you want to be secure,and on the other side you want to beviably available to the public, so how doyou hit that sweet spot," says Rounds."All of our planning is about that."

Questions on how to strike thatbalance now loom large in the plan-ning process for schools everywhere.

The use of glass at front entrances,and whether schools should pay ex-tra to protect that glass, has becomeanother hotly debated issue since theshooter in the 2012 Sandy Hook Ele-mentary tragedy shot his way throughglass to gain entry.

"The big question now is how far doyou take it," says Jim French with the

DLR Croup. "Do we put bulletproofglass at the vestibules of the schools, soif someone wanted to shoot their wayin the front that they couldn't? It's hardto justify... the cost and also there arejust so many other areas where a gun-man could do that."

For instance, in Raytown, Mo.,school administrators found theycouldn't justify the expense of bullet-proof or film-covered glass. The districtis renovating the front entrances of all19 schools and installing glass to createa line of sight from the front office.

"We're trying to make the most ofthe dollars we do have. We're not justputting up bullet-proof glass and say-ing that will protect us," says TravisHux, assistant superintendent of sup-port services for Raytown.

Hux noted that even bulletproofor film-covered glass woLild providelittle protection from someone who isdetermined to break through it. Thus,the renovation work also includes a"man trap" that forces visitors into thefront office area, where they are cut offfrom the rest of the school.

The work, which costs $417,000and will be finished by next summer,is intended to address day-to-day se-

curity needs, Hux says. He notes thatschool personnel receive additionaltraining for more extreme securitybreaches, like a shooting.

French says approaches like theone used in Raytown have becomestandard for front entrances.

REWRITING THE BOOKON LIBRARIES

Returning to the subject of libraries,schools and universities are trying tobalance the need for quiet, individual-ized study and reading space with theknowledge that the same space willoften host collaborative and socialactivities.

Crand Valley State University inAUendale, Mich., found a way for itslibrary to serve both needs. The un-conventional key was a two-and-a-halfstory Automated Storage and RetrievalSystem (ASRS) that allows the univer-sity's Mary Idema Pew Library Learn-ing and Information Commons tovertically store up to 600,000 volumes.

That freed up space for a varietyof other uses, including about 20collaborative work areas, two librarylearning labs, a multipurpose room fornearly 100 people and a "Knowledge

The Marysvllle Getchell Campus in Washington was designed by the DLR Group inresponse to the district's move toward the small learning community model. Thecampus includes four buildings for tour distinctly different academies anda campuscommons tor shared activities like dining and physical education. Phofo courfsey ofChris J. Roberfs Phofography

18 AMERICAN SCHOOL & UNIVERSITY • ASUMAG.COM • MAY 2014

The Alvln Independent School District, iocated just outside of Houston, Texas, willopen Shadow Creek High Schooi in 201¿ under the engaged-learning modei, whichemphasizes project-based learning and collaboration. The SHW Group designed thefacility to match the school's new approach to education. Photo courtesy of SHWGroup

Market" that facilitates peer coachingand mentoring for research, writingand presentations.

"Without [the ASRS], we couldn't dowhat we did," says Tod Stevens, princi-pal designer with the SHW Group.

An ASRS is a strategy that tendsto work well in new construction, butit could prove difficult to incorpo-rate into an existing building. Otherstrategies include culling the library'scollection, implementing compactshelving and using off-site shelving,Stevens says.

Stevens also sees the heavy influ-ence of three recent movements -digital, social and environmental - inemerging design trends for libraries.

"I think there's a big trend to startto open up libraries," he says. "Every-body's reading this idea of the social,bringing everybody together, the co-collaboration - all of that. People areunderstanding it and they're movingvery quickly to try to adapt to it."

The books have not been com-pletely removed from view at theGrand Valley library, though. Thereare still about 150,000 books in thelibrary's browsable collection, wherequiet study areas also are found, butpatrons must ascend beyond the firstcouple floors before they'll see them.

"Thoreau is still out on the shelves,for sure," Stevens says reassuringly.

The library was designed to createa buzz on the lower floors, accordingto Stevens. A café on the ground flooris intended to signify that noise is ac-ceptable. Retail and hospitality influ-

ences also pervade the library, a nodto the university's desire to make thespace more approachable for students.

The $65 million project wrappedup in 2013, with the doors openingthat summer.

Meanwhile, the public schoolsystem in Lexington, S.G., is freeingup space in its libraries by remov-ing outdated nonfiction and, whenpossible, digitizing current referenceworks. Schools are making better useof existing shelving space. The booksthat remain are organized under thegenre format found at a Barnes & No-ble rather than the venerable DeweyDecimal system.

The district has been transitioningall of its 29 schools to the learningcommons philosophy and recentlyopened a new high school. RiverBluff, with a comprehensive learningcommons.

Part of what liberated the districtto make the change was its one-to-oneiPad program for students in grades 6through 12, which facilitates students'access to digital information.

"The kids really don't need to goto the library to get the informationbecause, really, it's at their hand," saysMike Stacey, coordinator of media spe-cialists for the Lexington school district.

"We have to rethink that space. There'snot a compelling reason to come to thatspace if it's the same as it's always been.That's what we've done."

To make the most of the learningcommons and keep students engaged,the district has moved away from

built-in fixtures, utilizing flexiblefurnishings instead. This opens upthe space for a range of activities andconfigurations.

"Sometimes the program demandsit, but I think too often we build per-manent case work into spaces, andthen that eats into the space and alsodecreases the flexibility," says VictoriaBergsagel, founder of a consultingfirm called Architects of Achievement.

"I think that's going to be the keyfor our success in the future," saysBergsagel. "In many ways, we aredesigning for a future we don't know.We're building this high school for 50years. It's going to last. So how flexibleand adaptable can it be?"

That flexibility creates opportuni-ties for increasingly popular project-based learning areas like a maker'sspace, informally known as a "fablab." This is an area where studentsare encouraged to create and exploretheir own ideas.

While a maker's space can be aselaborate as a district can afford, itdoesn't have to require major fund-ing, Gavigan says. As an example of alow-budget maker's space, she cited aschool that created an area for studentsto repair the school district's comput-ers, and an English teacher who hadher students read an author's work andthen use what they learned to createaccompanying music playlists.

"Not everybody can buy a 3Dprinter but you can buy Legos and youcan create projects," Gavigan says. "Itcan be just computer stations or a mi-crophone or video cameras or thingslike that that may already be in thebuilding but they just haven't thoughtto put in a maker's space." •

NOLIN, associate editor, can be reachedat JILL.NOLIN@PENTON.COM.

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