Page 20 - School Planning & Management, October 2017

FACILITIES OUTDOOR SPACES
Elsewhere, the three-school campus of Big Horn schools in Sheridan, Wyo., in sight of the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, has other factors to consider and features in response. Architect Jenna Brown of Malone Belton Able Architects and landscape archi- tect Jolene Rieck of Peaks to Plains Design recently shared insights about the schools’ outdoor space, which was extensively remade between 2009 and 2013.
Brown and Rieck point out that water rights guide the landscape design of the 14- acre site. Punctuating the campus accord- ingly: Plantings and trees that subtly adorn the large parking lot, are winter hardy, low- water use, low-maintenance, and placed to enable uninterrupted lines of sight as per Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• AplaygroundwithPlayworldSystems’
Neo; as well as GameTime equipment. The 10,572-square-foot playground is built atop a fill and retaining wall to use space that had been a steep slope. The spot overlooks a creek from which the campus draws some water for irrigation.
• A bell tower with locally historic bells. The tower is the focal point of the campus.
• An artificial turf football field that uses
a pivot irrigation system for hygiene and occasionalcooling—theturfchoiceuses about 25 percent of the water that a natural field would consume, say Brown and Rieck.
Without much fanfare, the attractive campus is a focal point for the community, just as the bell tower is for the campus itself, with both serving to make a com- prehensively changed space into a place that expresses not only education, but also continuity and community.
PHOTO © VISTA WEST ENGINEERING
20 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / OCTOBER 2017
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PHOTOS © SCOTT BERMAN