Page 26 - School Planning & Management, February 2018

FACILITIES { LEARNING SPACES }
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CORGAN
TOP AND BELOW TWO PHOTOS © KURT GRIESBACH
LEFT AND RIGHT PHOTOS © CHARLES DAVIS SMITH, AIA
Outdoor Learning Environments:
Making Positive Connections Beyond the School Walls.
LEARNING AND GROWTH hap- pens when students make positive connections to the world around
them, to ideas, to others and to their future. The intentional design of the environment outside the walls of a school, anchored in
a sense of place and discoverable by all the senses, provides unique opportunities for learners of any age to expand their reach.
At the outset of a project, a thorough environmental analysis and visioning with the community, students, and staff provide a needed base for decision making and cur- riculum integration. In addition, allowing the “memory” of a place—its history and significance—to influence the design can honor the community and communicate the
By Jake Kelly-Salo and Jason Mellard, AIA, LEED-AP
value of place to students. During planning, it can be helpful to include specific outdoor functions into the program to maximize their potential and keep them from being leftover spaces. The design of outdoor envi- ronments should not stop at the playground.
Anchored in Place
In the development of a proposed S.T.E.A.M. academy in the heart of the Fort Worth, Texas arts district, Corgan referenced the iconic Kimball Art Museum, the Modern and the historic stockyards in developing not only the rhythmic massing of the build-
ing, but in prioritizing the incorporation
of a public esplanade available for parades, celebrations, STEM demonstrations, and art
exhibits. The public spaces offered by the school and its precedents are as much an in- tegral part of the city fabric as the buildings they contain. This concept of a “common ground” was paralleled by a “common sky” which manifested in an expansive roof ter- race at the same elevation as the downtown towers across the river. The goal was to create a school that was not just in the city, but of the city. These site decisions underscored to the students that what they were learning
in school had direct relation to the larger arts community and the professional world which they would help shape.
A regional approach was used to craft the building and site design of Argyle Middle School, for Argyle ISD in Texas. The
26 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / FEBRUARY 2018
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