The American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) April 9-10, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco

$10 Million to Design Schools as Centers of Community
Steven Bingler, AIA, Concordia Architects, spoke about Department of Education planning grants and design guidelines. Frederick “Fritz” Edelstein, Director of Constituent Relations, U.S. Department of Education, was available to answer questions.

DOE summary:
“The President’s FY2000 budget includes a new $10 million proposal to provide competitive grants to school-community partnerships to support broader citizen engagement in the design of individual school facilities or school system master plans. Community involvement in the planning and design of new schools can spark innovation and produce savings through cost-sharing and energy-efficiency, and it can help maximize the use of school facilities as centers of community.”

Design Principles: Schools as Center of Community
(originally presented at the National Symposium on School Design in Washington, D.C., October, 1998)

1. Enhance teaching and learning and accommodate the needs of all learners

• Follow the research in the learning sciences
• Students doing rather than just receiving
• Students creating rather than re-creating
• Students solving problems
• Cooperative, project based, interdisciplinary learning
• Emphasis on learning styles, multiple intelligences and the special needs of each student
• School buildings are important tools for learning
• Accelerate research on the impact of the physical environment on student achievement

2. Serve as center of the community

• School as community
• Encourage community use after hours, late at night and on weekends
• Serve as centers of lifelong learning and training
• Serve leisure, recreational, wellness needs of the community
• Facilitate public access to communications technology
• Facilitate parent and community involvement
• Support professionalism and participation of staff members
• Reflect the noble character of public architecture
• Community as school -Extend learning environments throughout the whole community
• Learning community

3. Result from a planning/design process involving all stakeholders

• Include educators
• Include parents
• Include students
• Include community stakeholders
• Respect differences in age, culture and gender
• Allow adequate time and resources for the planning process

4. Provide for health, safety and security

• Attractively designed and well maintained facilities
• Appropriate school and classroom populations
• Address all safety and environmental codes
• Maintain healthy indoor environments
• Minimize obscured or poorly lit places
• Carefully designed traffic patterns

5. Make effective use of all available resources

• Maximize the impact of the physical environment on learning
• Building and landscape should serve as “three dimensional textbooks”
• Maximize the use of community resources
• Encourage learning/workplace interface
• Re-use existing facilities to preserve natural and historic environments
• Maximize the benefits of cultural diversity
• Maximize the use of all environmental resources
• Provide for the extensive use of technology
• Design within limits that can be maintained by future generation

6. Allow for flexibility and adaptability to changing needs

• Flexible design and adaptable systems
• Evaluate master plans and educational specifications at least every five years
• Plan for rapid expansion of technology
• Allow for what we do not yet know

Steven Bingler, AIA
Principal, Concordia Architects
201 St. Charles, New Orleans, LA 70170
(504) 569-1818; fax: (504) 569-1820
sbingler@concordia.com
http://www.concordia.com

Frederick Edelstein, Director of Constituent Relations
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave. SW, Room 5E202
Washington, DC 20202-3572 (202) 401-3595
fritz_edelstein@ed.gov
http://ed.gov/inits/construction/dollars.html

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