Familiar with Ian Jukes yet?

If not, head over to his thought-provoking “The Committed Sardine Blog” and swim around a bit in his world of future studies, technology, and education. If so, then this post excerpt of his on the idea of school desks that actually move to suit the kids’ movements will seem par for the course:

Fourth- and fifth-graders in one Rochester, Minn., school stand at adjustable podiums, kneel on mats or sit on exercise balls during class whenever they want, as part of a Mayo Clinic study on whether the students will burn more calories than they would if they were seated at traditional desks. Anecdotally, their teacher and superintendent find the children more focused and less distracted. The conclusion - fidgeting in classroom may help students. This article can be found at this link.

The fidgety boys and girls in Phil Rynearson’s classroom get up and move around whenever they want, and that’s just fine with him.

In fact, stretching, swaying and even balancing on big wobbly exercise balls are the point of this experimental classroom. The goal is to see if getting children to move even a little can help combat childhood obesity. Read the rest of this entry »

David Warlick, a friend of education from every conceivable angle one could offer up, lives in a North Carolina community that is preparing for a bond referendum to pay for the improvement of school facilities. In his must-read “2 Cents Worth” blog, David offers an inspired and provocative post that takes on the issue of facilities and tax dollars/voters, but more importantly asks us whether we are trying to inspire “waiting learners” or “fearless learners” in the process.

Its in all of our best interests to ask David’s question in our own communities: Read the rest of this entry »

Excerpt from “Creating a New Campus Gateway” article (4.06) in Midwest Construction:

The East Campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison is undergoing dramatic changes.

By July, a 3.1-acre site that formerly housed a salvage yard, gas station and garbage truck parking will be home to a six-story residence hall, seven-story office/parking structure and one-story cylindrical university welcome center.

“It’s a great new gateway and entry,” said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor, facility planning and management of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It’s a major transformation of how people arrive on campus.”

Excerpt from “New Haven Learning a Lot In $1.5-Billion Building Spree” (4.17.05) Engineering News-Record article:

School district officials in New Haven, Conn., are in the throes of a $1.5-billion, 15-year marathon to replace, or renovate to pristine condition, schools and other facilities that now serve 21,000 students.

The district is not the nation’s largest by any stretch, but it is spending more per capita on construction than any other, officials say. “Cities like Cleveland and Washington, D.C., have bigger programs,” but they are not investing as much per child, says Thomas Rogér, a vice president of Providence, R.I.-based Gilbane Program Management, who directs the New Haven Public Schools program. Aging infrastructure, rather than a growing student population, is the impetus for this construction push, which began in the late 1990s.

Excerpt from a 4.17.06 Engineering News-Record article:

The Los Angeles Unified School District is locked in a high-stakes legal battle with its insurer, American International Group, over a $100-million policy it bought to cover rising cleanup costs at school construction sites found to be contaminated with toxic substances. The lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court on Feb. 28, accuses AIG, New York City, of reneging on a 1999 pact to cover for 20 years much of its environmental cleanup cost—an expense district officials admit could reach policy limits.

Thanks to Mike and Daren for this wonderful link:

Click on the link and read all the menus. Design process is the funniest.

A spoof. But maybe not.

And with all this serious discussion, it’s nice to have someone re-think the premise of the architecture firm…to keep us all honest.

This email from a cultural anthropoligist really caught my attention recently:

In the meantime you might be interested in the following story on an experimental classroom designed with fighting childhood obesity in mind - . I also posted about this on my blog -

Best,

Marcel

So, with all the focus on fighting childhood obesity (heck, there’s a new reality show on cable called “Honey, We’re Killing the Kids” about this very topic), can school design really make a difference?

*****

If you want to get in touch with Marcel Harmon, Ph.D., a remarkable cultural anthropoligist with a strong passion for spaces that positively impact kids, give him an email at mjharmon[at]humaninquiry[dot] or go directly to his firm, Human Inquiry to explore his anthropological work.

Interesting news from Virginia and the world of educational facility design:

Richmond, Va., April 1, 2006—Eperitus, LLC, owned by BCWH Architects, announced today that it will become a fully independent company. BCWH, a leading Virginia architectural company, located in Richmond VA, started the subsidiary company in 2001 to better serve their educational clients. Eperitus was founded in the infancy of technology in education. Since this time, the individuals at Eperitus have found a strong and growing business beyond technology. This has taken the core of their practice beyond design of educational facilities and the state of Virginia. Eperitus has a second office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that was established in 2003. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mayor of SF continues to be a visionary. Case in point in the unexpected realm of ‘temporary’ classrooms. Excerpt brought to us by the good folks at School Construction News:

With 118 public school sites in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom is hoping a sustainable classroom prototype, known as “Project FROG,” will provide an improved way to accommodate schoolchildren who are currently housed on campuses in trailers, some of which are poorly insulated and leak.

A couple of details about this powerfully unique ‘modular’ prototype: Read the rest of this entry »

Been asked a great deal lately about the potential value of adding blogging to the collaborative work of school design teams. Marketing opportunities aside for the design firm itself, there seems to be infinite potential for teams who take advantage of blogging as a way to:

a) capture conversation, b) truly ‘listen’ to the community/client, and c) use it as a way to fine-tune the project requirements over time.

Sadly, however, many in the architectural community are skeptical about adding this ‘new’ tool, fearing liability issues or the expense involved. Possibly its just ‘fear of change’. Or maybe the ‘traditional’ client-interaction process is ‘just fine’ and there seems to be no ‘fire’ to be lit under anyone’s seat. Well, times are-a-changin’!

From an architecture firm in Wyoming, Chad wrote the following to me recently:

While considering the use of a project blog for my school design teams, a March/April ‘06 School Construction News article jumped off the page. Read the rest of this entry »