Alpine Prototype Middle Schools

Narratives

Architect Narrative

These schools provide a state-of-the-art design solution resulting from a lively collaboration of players including teachers, students, District staff, community members, students, and architects. In this fast-growing region, the District determined the need for more than one new middle school building, and set up a group to begin defining the program for a completely new and different facility. A key component of this group was the architect, who played a key role in assisting the District in defining the Educational Facilities Program.

This marriage of client and architect led to a series of programming and philosophy workshops, tours of outstanding similar facilities, and the formation of a diverse group of project stakeholders to plan the new school. One of the unusual challenges of the project was the idea that this school must be a prototype design – the urgent need for multiple new schools, paired with the need for economy in the state with the lowest per pupil spending in the country, mandated the idea that this design be applicable to more than one venue.

As anticipated, by bidding two identical schools at the same time, and constructing them over the same period, the project realized a net $1.8 million savings. Three committees were established by the District – the Curriculum Committee, the Community Building Committee, and the Maintenance Committee. At the architect’s request, a fourth committee – Students – was also incorporated into the design process. All four groups were heavily involved in the facility program and design discussions. The groups visited the site during construction (monthly tours), and were intimately involved in the dedication ceremonies.

The Educational Facilities Program focus was to create a meaningful educational environment, and the design committee created specific challenges that the new building must accommodate.
It would have to:

• Support an integrated curriculum – The building should assist students to learn and enable teachers to instruct utilizing a variety of styles and techniques. By defragmentizing the learning experience (several different teachers and seven unrelated subjects) of the traditional Junior High School, students find relevance in everything around them.
• Encourage collaboration – An inter-disciplinary approach to curriculum is the strength of the Middle School Philosophy. The challenge is to accommodate teaming and collaboration across disciplines.
• Facilitate curriculum flexibility - theme-based, project-based, technology-based, hands-on based, or experimentally-based
• Create community – The Middle School should create a community for learning where relationships are developed between peers and adults, thereby abolishing individual anonymity. It should enhance guidance of students during this turbulent time in their lives. Smaller schools within schools contribute to this goal.
• Pique student interest – By providing learning opportunities within the architecture itself, utilizing colors, textures, and ideas integral to the building architecture, students take interest in and become curious about their surroundings.
• Enhance educational space – A building that provides natural daylighting, great acoustics, and year round environmental comfort creates a successful learning environment for its occupants.
• Incorporate durability & maintainability – The facility should be designed to minimize long term lifecycle costs, and to facilitate ease of maintenance.

The key to the final solution – the arrangement of the classrooms into three grade-level specific, double-lobed academic learning centers, or “houses”, surrounding (but connected through glass roll-up doors in every classroom), a lively central collaboration space. These “houses” provide a highly flexible, open, and extremely visible environment for group collaboration, fostering critical student/ student and student/teacher relationships. Conference rooms and faculty planning offices, toilet rooms, and lockers make up a “house”, promoting a cohesive environment in which students may live and learn. This school-within-a-school concept helps divide the 1,400 student population into smaller, more intimate learning families.

Richly colored ribbed metal cladding highlights the building exterior, providing a striking contrast to the neutral masonry used for the basic structure. Visitors enter the school under a smooth metal “scoop” into the heart of the complex, a high ceilinged central Commons/Gathering space, supported by custom steel columns. This space provides a striking setting for students and visitors to gather, eat, socialize, and watch performances and presentations. The combination of concrete materials, textures, and building masses facilitate a “campus feel” to what would otherwise be one large building. The new junior high is sited at the foot of the stunning local mountains which are reflected in the building’s profile. The dynamic color schemes, and detailing more commonly found in a retail setting were chosen to captivate and enchant the young people participating in the educational experience.

Educator Narrative

Six years ago, the School District Board of Education initiated a new direction for our 7-9 Junior High Schools. The new direction was to implement the middle school philosophy (enclosed). At that time, we had eight traditional junior high schools experiencing rapid student growth.

The School Board wanted a new design for our middle schools to help facilitate the philosophy. We held an open competition with architects to design a two story building to include the middle school philosophy.

The Architect furthered the design by talking with a committee of patrons, teachers, administrators and students. Through this process a real middle school was designed and built. This building included 7th, 8th, and 9th grade houses for teaming. Each house had a collaborative area built so students could engage in wireless communication and interdisciplinary curriculum. An open lunch/commons area was built to maximize the use of space. An auditorium was built to include instructional areas. The arts and technology areas were also incorporated for teaming. The form of the building fit the function of the middle school philosophy.

These buildings have become the pride of our district and similar designs are now being built in Utah. The schools were built for kids to build upon their talents and strengths. They enhance their use of technology and are a fun, exciting and safe climate to learn in.

– Administrator of 7-9 Schools