Chugiak High School House 2

Narratives

Architect Narrative

The School was originally constructed in 1963 at approximately 72,000 square feet. There have been no less than eight separate additions; the latest in 1985 to bring the school up to 285,000 square feet. By the mid 1990’s major portions of the school had outlived their useful lives, the facility was critically run down. Many mechanical systems were only minimally functional and the school couldn’t accommodate modern technology requirements. The facility contained extensive amounts of hazardous materials and was constructed for seismic levels well below the current standards.

The creation of House 2 through the renovation of the existing facility is based on the school’s master plan. The master plan calls for a phased renovation to 200,000 square feet of the 285,000 square foot facility over a four to six year period. The School—in accordance with District guidelines—was to be reorganized into clusters, or “houses.” Each house is to create a unique learning atmosphere that is flexible, adaptable to change, and supportive of different types of program delivery. Each house is to be a self-contained “school within a school” with students attending their core academic classes within their house and the teachers from each house working as a team. Each house would have its own teacher center, staff lounge, counselors, administrative staff, security staff, copy center, storage rooms and restrooms.

House 2 is the third component to be constructed within the phased Master Plan. It is a 24,000 square foot renovation within the footprint of the existing building. The original space suffered from narrow hallways, low ceilings, and no natural light due to its interior location. The renovated space now contains eleven classrooms and two science classrooms surrounding a student commons. The teacher center, offices for counselors, administrative staff and security staff are centrally located off the commons for ease of access and to afford maximum visual supervision. Student lockers are located within or directly outside the house. The two entries into the house have been arranged to discourage the house’s hallways from becoming “short cuts” for the general student population.

This project has provided an ideal environment to fully implement the concept of a team of educators, administrators and students united together within a house. Prior to the renovation, a team of teachers had already been assigned this House and had been trying to team-teach from locations scattered across the school. The faculty and students who before belonged to an intangible group called “House 2″ can now experience the security and closeness that the House concept was meant to engender: close grouping of classrooms and faculty facilities, lockers in the immediate vicinity of the classes and other House-mates, an intimate yet easily supervised commons space for gathering between classes, teachers that are immediately accessible, etc. It also has improved the condition of the previous learning spaces with upgraded technology capabilities, natural lighting, and an attractive and stimulating new learning environment. This project has truly improved the learning opportunities at the School.

Educator Narrative

Our High School’s teachers and students have both benefited from the learning space created in the remodel of house two. The remodel has assisted in the complex process of taking one large high school and dividing it into four functional houses. The remodel has created a physical space that closely matches the philosophical ideas behind smaller learning communities. For over a dozen years, research has shown that small schools are more effective schools, and that large schools unable to decentralize completely show many of the same benefits by creating smaller learning communities within a school.

The house has helped to ensure a more personal feel for both students and staff. The inclusion of a commons area with classrooms surrounding it has been beneficial to this process.

Team teaching began in our high school almost ten years ago. Its benefits were so obvious to both teacher and student, that we hoped our remodel would create more spaces to foster teamwork amongst our teaching staff. Collapsible walls between academic classrooms have enhanced our staff’s ability to do this. Two sections of the same class, or two sections of a teamed class can now meet together for a common activity, guest presentation, play performance, etc. The availability of these open spaces and dual-purpose rooms has opened a wide variety of learning opportunities within the building that have not been available in the past due to the lack of accessible, open space.

The central placement of core academic classrooms around a commons area, a teacher workroom, and administrative office, has allowed teachers to make intense and intimate connections with their peers beyond traditional content areas. In house two, particularly, teachers have broadened their scope of expertise and blend it across the curriculum. Even after just one year, we are beginning to see a kind of community created amongst house teachers that was impossible before the remodel.

The inclusion of natural light in both common areas and classrooms has had obvious benefits. Lolly Rader, a math teacher, put it most poetically when she said, “The skylight is oriented so that on a cloudless afternoon the sun shines through the windows, reflecting against the curved metal panels and peach paint of the skylight extension. The central part of the room is bathed in a warm, peach glow. It is an uplifting physical environment in which to teach.”

For students, the open spaces have provided a natural place to hangout within the safe view of teachers waiting at their doors between periods. The high ceilings have created a feeling of open space that seems to have lessoned the tension of a tight and overcrowded high school. For staff, the remodel of house two has made our job as educators easier and more satisfying.