Page 24 - School Planning & Management, November 2017

INTERIORS
Construction costs require that “every square foot of space in a school serve an educational purpose. Most modern schools have very few corridors, hallways, or other areas dedicated solely to cir- culation — most have widened these areas, elevating them from ‘passageways’ to ‘main streets,’” where collaboration and learning take place.
Significant overhauls aside, lighting and color schemes can work with details to add much visual interest to interiors. It may be as simple as light attractively highlighting the nooks and crannies of a split-face cinder block wall, as in the auditorium of the new Whea- ton High School in Maryland.
Another interior takes its in- spiration from the past: that of Rapid City High School in South Dakota. The recently renovated and expanded alternative school, created in two phases from and in addition to a grand building many decades old and on the na- tional historic register, points out Architect Kristine Bjerke, princi- palofArchitecture,Inc.Thenew building now has, among other things, a completely restored and updated community theatre — the district worked with the lo- cal community theatre group and Jerit/Boys Inc., Chicago, was theatre design consultant — and a new section with classrooms, an administrative office, a secure en- trance and a studio theatre. Bjer- ke said that given the status of the building, the interior design ap- proach at the school was “to bring it back to its historic look as much as possible,” and to do so, Bjerke and her colleagues often had to work from old photos.
Finishes and details include painstakingly restored orna- ment, preserving some theatre seats and lighting fixtures — some new, matching fixtures were custom made — applying vinyl whiteboard surfaces to old blackboards, adding HON furniture, among others and revealing ceiling moldings, brackets and woodwork.
As Bjerke adds, “If you’ve got some good finishes, it’s totally possible to preserve the original feel. And when you do an addi- tion, you can modify that, but keep it going.”
Likewise, a fresh, attrac- tive interior inspired in part by its predecessor pops at Paris High School in Illinois, a 135,000-square-foot, $39.7-mil- lion high school designed by BLDD Architects. Opened two years ago, the school replaced
a 106-year-old high school. The new library, like the old one, is located near the build- ing’s center, and there are long stretches of attractive terrazzo in hallways. Still, “this is differ- ent,” then-Director and Princi- pal Dave Meister said. There is the interior’s warm, attractive orange color scheme, which ap- pears in various tones on walls, lockers, sections of the terrazzo and soft furniture.
The color adorns hallway- learning spaces that students suggested as part of a teach- ing assignment early on in the process, according to Meister. The spaces, a sign of how many schools are marshalling almost every space for education, pro- vide hallway transit, of course, as well as a gathering area for students to interact and col- laborate, and in at least one instance can form an extended learning area when teachers open a Nanowall between the space and an adjoining class- room. During a tour just before the school opened its doors, workers at that spot unpacked and set up furniture, including pieces they identified as being from National and Wisconsin Bench, on carpet tile by Tandus.
Interior inspirations can come from outside a district, of course: take Penn-Trafford High School in Pennsylvania. Elements of its interior — part of a $31-million renovation and extension project — were
24 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / NOVEMBER 2017
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PHOTOS © SCOTT BERMAN