The vision was to create innovative spaces within an older high school. School leadership led a successful community campaign to support the initiative including improvements to existing infrastructure. Initially, students found it hard to imagine the end result, but were open to the journey of exploration of how space could affect learning and student exchange.
Innovative spaces were developed to be empirical so that adaptability would be the primary goal for future functionality. Two areas of the building were chosen as important node points for these shared spaces, adjacent to the current main floor library and across the building up on the second floor in the original library. Challenges included contending with changing structural systems, historic preservation concerns, HVAC, egress, and managing construction disruption while the building was occupied.
Overall strategies to complement traditional classrooms included provision of specialized furniture and operable glass walls to create adjacent small, medium and large spaces. Storage solutions, (including ‘robot garages’), access to technology, work surfaces, visual expansion, and accessibility/visibility were all incorporated.
Students love using the space, they talk about finding their roles with others on projects as a process of arrival. The project has taken on a life of its own!
