Gloria Mikolajczyk

Mr. Matschulat,

I am an architect working for the Department of Education and although I am new to this particular position. I’ve worked with various organizations and architectural firms who either use Ed. Specs., prepare Ed. Specs. or review them. As an architect I’ve always marveled and reveled at the process of programming. Interviewing the users, clients, visiting spaces the client felt exceptional and also visiting the client’s present environment always brought insights into how spaces could be arranged, spatial interaction and what solar orientation the building spaces were to take. I found this process indispensable. It produced a relationship with the client/user that only enriched the product - the building environment.

When doing public school work, we were given an “Ed Spec”. This document was a backbone, similar to our own human backbone. We all have one but no two of us are alike. I don’t believe Ed Spec’s foster cookie cutter designs if they are used as a means to provide a starting point. Shame on the architects who use it as such. By receiving this document it does not preclude that we, as designers, were not to engage in programming. It was viewed as a spring point, a guide, an attempt at least, to get all the players on the same page. In most cases I would have preferred, as an architect, to devise the “ed spec.” myself and present it to the local governing agency. In today’s day and time, the issue of checks and balances divides the “work” so no party has the upper hand or the “ear” of those in the financial arena. The ed spec allows governing bodies to put a “whoa” on administrators who may be overzealous in their list of needs or conversely provides aminimum set of requirements to provide some equity in a region.

Where I see the disconnect in today’s procedure is that boards of education who approve the ed. specs may not be privy to recent research which introduces state of the art thinking on school education, environment and learning. That is where groups like CEFPI and the AIA could target information dissemination and get these decision makers on board with where the environments of learning are heading.

Gloria Mikolajczyk, R.A.
School Facilities
Maryland State Department of Education
200 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Ph# 410-767-0101
Fax# 410-333-6522
gmikolajczyk@msde.state.md.us

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