Cedar Valley Community School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

PROCESS
“Our school must provide a place where a divergent population can come together, celebrate and share in activities that strengthen bonds and form positive relationships between the school and the surrounding community. The school is enriched with a first-generation community that speak languages from over 20 different nations. Participation in universal activities such as eating, performing arts and athletics help to foster a vital element of community within the facility, essential to developing life-long world learners.”
Gayle Everly, Principal, Cedar Valley Community School
The program for the school was developed through a series interactive charrettes held at the existing school to draw the teachers, students, parents and members of the community into the process. All ideas generated were given equal merit and a consensus building process determined the common and most important concepts to inform the process for creating a building.
Established as a traditional K-6 school the charrettes highlighted unique requirements of the students and projected a need for a K-8 model of education. Teachers felt the continuity of supervision and guidance of the educational experience better served the students rather than the standard dislocation of students to middle school from elementary school. While not exactly the ‘one-room’ school where the teacher and student develop a continuous long-term relationship, the extended relationship through eighth grade is expected to strengthen the students’ commitment to life-long learning.
DESIGN
The two-level design solution for the building engages and existing hillside, providing on-grade access to each floor. This arrangement addresses the need for flexibility in accommodating a diversely aged student population. Circulation is ‘slip-stacked’ to allow a visual connection between the floors throughout the building. Abundant natural light fills all areas of the facility, including the internal shared activity spaces, and visually extends the school into the surrounding natural environment.
Careful planning resulted in a simple building diagram that distinguishes classroom areas from those offering shared community use. The main entrance is articulated with gracious entry canopy and allows administrative supervision of the entrance to the site, vehicular areas, lobby, gymnasium, and cafeteria areas. In addition to allowing for secured after-hours use, gymnasium and cafeteria areas are designed to accommodate varied types of music, dining, performance and assembly activities.
The twenty-four classrooms are collected in six groupings of four around shared activity spaces. All classrooms are nearly identical and arranged to enjoy eastern light and a visual connection to adjacent park. Integral light-shelves reflect day lighting into the spaces from the full width windows while smaller openings frame views to the park and natural site beyond. Large interior windows borrow natural light from the adjacent activity areas and central circulation space. The center classrooms share an operable partition that allows the teachers to accommodate teaming activities among the learning pods.
The activity areas are configured to allow both structured and unstructured learning opportunities outside the normal flow of traffic. The building is configured without formal corridors, enabling easy ‘open door’ supervision from the nearby classrooms. Daylight is provided to the internal spaces by a large, continuous north-south clerestory monitor, providing a view to the sky and connection to the passing of time and weather. The main floor circulation overlooks the first floor circulation enhancing community and allowing daylight to penetrate deep into the building. Built-in casework includes display cases, common storage, a deep sink and wet-area for art-related learning. Inclusion of a whiteboard, tackable wall surfaces and appropriate furniture allow for directed learning to small groups of students drawn from the four adjacent rooms.
The Library, Computer Lab, Administration and Student Services areas are arranged to offer convenient access to the learning spaces and to allow access to the public. Cafeteria, gymnasium and music spaces are located adjacent to the main entrance, also encouraging community use.