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2. How does the design reinforce the school as a
center of the community?
The school features two gymnasiums, one on either side
of the large cafetorium to allow multiple community functions to take
place at one time. Operable,
soundproof partitions separate the three areas or allow the formation of
one large seating area for student or community activities and events. Adult basketball, volleyball and intramural sports can take
place in the gymnasiums, while board meetings and other community
functions can be held on the stage. These areas are accessible after
school hours and the classroom wings can be closed off.
3. Describe the planning/design process and who
was involved.
Through the Schoolhouse of Quality® customer-focused
planning and design process, Canal Winchester customers/stakeholders and
other important target groups provided input towards the new Indian
Trail Elementary School at a variety of different levels of detail. This input was collected within the six Schoolhouse of
Quality process principles…(1) Customer Driven, (2) Team Led, (3)
Visual Documentation, (4) Customer Confirmation, (5) Design
Implementation and (6) Customer Feedback.
Customer Driven
As a first step in the research process, elementary teachers,
parents with children in elementary school and community residents
without children in Canal Winchester Schools participated in focus group
discussions. These randomly
recruited community members were brought together to qualitatively
uncover and discuss very broad issues of importance/customer values that
related to the new elementary school.
Approximately 30 people participated in this phase of the
research.
Based on the input uncovered in the focus
group discussions, surveys were developed to quantify the importance of
various customer values, as well as rate how well existing Canal
Winchester Schools perform on those customer values.
Written surveys were completed among fifty-eight (58)
teachers/staff. Telephone surveys were completed throughout the district
among eighty-four (84) parents with children in Canal Winchester schools
and fifty-seven (57) community residents without children in Canal
Winchester Schools. A total
of one hundred and ninety (190) people participated in this phase of the
research.
Team Led
After developing a strong understanding of the
community’s values and priorities, an expert building-wide design team
made up of teachers, administrators, parents, community members
and SHP designers was convened. This
team’s goal was to develop conceptual solutions to the customer values
identified in the Customer Driven phase.
Approximately 18-20 people participated in this phase of the
Schoolhouse of Quality planning and design process.
Ten (10) smaller department-level
design teams were convened to address issues related to the various
functional components/departments of the new elementary school.
These teams consisted of 3-8 people per group.
The purpose of these groups was to provide more detailed input
(design parameters) based on the conceptual solutions developed in the
building-wide design team.
Visual Documentation/Customer Confirmation
The customer driven concepts and parameters identified in the previous
phase were developed more fully and then presented to design team
members in the form of 3D computer models, floor plans etc.
Customer
Feedback
After the new building was
open and in use, feedback research was conducted with the target
customer groups (teachers/staff, parents & community members).
The focus of the research was to obtain feedback about how well
the new elementary school delivers on customer values/requirements,
express what customers like and dislike about the building and uncover
the overall community perception of the new facility.
A total of one hundred twenty-nine (129) people participated in
the feedback research (over 400 people participated in the planning and
design process; see www.schoolhouseofquality.com
for more details).
4. How does the project provide for health, safety
and security, beyond standard approaches?
The school was designed with security and safety in
mind. To protect all
occupants, the building is secured throughout the day with all exterior
doors locked once the students arrive each morning.
Anyone who enters the school after that time must enter through
the clearly visible visitors’ entrance that opens directly to the
welcome center and adjacent administration area. The building was
designed with a traditional plan layout with two wings and a core area.
The core area has all shared functions: administration, clinic,
cafeteria, gymnasiums, stage, music classrooms and art and media center
on the second floor. This
allowed us to break down the scale of the facility.
5. How does the project enhance the use of all
available resources?
The site was planned to have a second school opposite
the current facility. This
allows for one entrance on the site for both schools.
We also planned for the same type of vehicular circulation to be
used for the second school facility. The school also offers a spacious
media center that has numerous reading rooms to provide students with a
quiet study atmosphere. Two
art rooms, containing pottery kilns and plenty of storage space for
supplies, were designed for creative learning.
6. What unique strategies allow for flexibility
and adaptability to changing needs?
Planning the site for a second school at the same time
the current facility illustrates the scale of changing needs we had to
deal with. From the time we
started planning the current facility to when construction was complete
the District knew the current facility would be full.
We had to develop a building floor plan that could be replicated
in the second facility. The
second facility is currently in design and is scheduled to be completed
for the 2001 school year.
Post
Occupancy Evaluation (short form)
Each firm applying for the SCN & Design Share Awards program were
asked to provide
comments from 2 stakeholders in each of 4 groups: 1) students, 2)
parents, 3) educators and 4) community representatives.
Q 1: What
do you think is the greatest asset about the design of the learning
environment?
Student
1 & 2: Due to the age of the students in this school we normally do
not ask them to participate in any form of research.
See Educator 3
Parent
1: I like the large lunchroom and I like the big classrooms.
(Mother)
Parent
2: I like the windows that provide natural lighting and open up the
classrooms. The hallways
allow for easy flow of traffic by students.
(Mother)
Parent
3: I like the way the floors are separated by grade levels. The
cafeteria is a multi-purpose room and not only for serving lunch.
(Father)
Educator
1: I like that it is a friendly, homey, secure building. I also like the
positive feelings generated by the students.
(2nd Grade Teacher)
Educator
2: The art room is very functional.
Lots of room and storage. I
can see students no matter what they are doing and behavior is much
better.
(Art Teacher)
Educator
3: I love our school. I
like my room and I am glad of all the storage & individual lockers.
The computer room is great to have. The art, music, gyms &
library are great too.
(1st Grade Teacher)
Community
Rep. 1: I really like the spacious rooms they have.
(Female Community Member)
Community
Rep. 2: I like that it is set back off the road where nobody could get
to it except through the main entrance.
(Female Community Member)
Q 2: What would you change about the design of
this learning environment?
Student
1 & 2:
Due to the age of the students in this school we
normally do not ask them to participate in any form of research.
See Educator 3.
Parent
1: I don’t like the ceiling in the cafeteria.
(Mother)
Parent
2: I wish the classrooms for the special education classes were on the
first floor. That’s the
only thing I don’t like.
(Mother)
Parent
3: Its an awful long way from the main parking lot to the building.
(Father)
Educator
1: Sometimes the large windows to the hallway are a distraction to
students.
(2nd Grade Teacher)
Educator
2: There is absolutely no way to display things on the walls, so nobody
hangs anything up and the environment feels sterile.
(Art Teacher)
Educator
3: I want to display my students work in the hallways, but there are no
easy ways to do this. We
need more bulletin boards.
(1st Grade Teacher)
Community
Rep. 1: They need to have a larger area to pick up kids.
It seems a little chaotic when parents pick them up.
(Female Community Member)
Community
Rep. 2: I think that they spent too much money on the cafetorium wooded
ceiling, that was unnecessary.
(Female Community Member)
A
comprehensive Post Occupancy Evaluation is available at: Indian
Trail POE
Associate
Firms:
Construction
Manager: Ruscilli Construction, Roger Mc Loney, 614-876-9484
Mechanical: Heapy Engineers, 614-457-2696
Structural: Graham Obermeyer Partners, Ltd., 513-621-7073
Landscape: Ken Cunningham & Associates
Inc., Ken Cunningham, 513-381-7131
Kitchen: Joby Smith, 513-779-7970
Technology: Heapy Engineers, 614-457-2696
Photography: Seth Boyd, 513-684-1729
Product
Information: |
