Page 17 - School Planning & Management, October 2017

FACILITIES { LEARNING SPACES }
Outdoor Spaces
Creating a true community place where everyone feels welcome.
By Scott Berman
Pride outside. At Triton Regional High School, in Runnemede, N.J., you will find the school col- ors on the bollards, handrails and other outdoor features. The courtyard is furnished with picnic tables, complete with umbrellas. Landscaping features native plants, a butterfly garden, work- ing greenhouses, and a small organic garden.
and nicely tended landscaping enlivens pathways and nooks. In 2016, Triton was named one of the national Green Ribbon School award winners for environmen- tally friendly projects and practices, and identifies that honor with lettering affixed to its façade. The outdoor space indicates some of the reasons why the school won the award, including native plants, a but- terfly garden, working greenhouses, and a small organic garden tended by students. A courtyard is not left to languish, either: the grassy spot has bright outdoor furniture under umbrellas to help draw in students to eat lunch and gather.
Triton is one example of how a school utilizes the landscaping and other elements of its outdoor spaces in practical, com- municative ways. Other campuses in very different environs are taking a variety of approaches.
THE GROUNDS AND BUILDING exterior of Triton Regional High School in southern New Jersey is where the institution starts expressing its
brand and achievement in implicit and explicit ways.
School colors appear in vivid lines of bollards, there are mature shade trees,
OCTOBER 2017 / SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT 17
PHOTOS © SCOTT BERMAN