The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center

Narratives

Architect Narrative

Met administrators, teachers, parents, students, local businesses, residents and others from the community, along with design and planning professional facilitators, initiated a master planning process for creating a plan to distribute six to eight small schools of 100-125 students over several downtown and South Providence sites.

The plan’s primary elements, along with lessons learned from the previous two small school sites have been incorporated into the new design:

• Four small schools will exist as individual, stand alone buildings
Instead of individual classrooms, large spaces designed on a 16 foot module, are equipped with movable walls and office landscape furnishings in lieu of the institutional standard of fixed classrooms.

• A neighborhood center for the community
The schools are located on the site independent of common functions that can be shared by the community. A large Fitness Center has a gymnasium, aerobics and weight rooms, and a rock climbing wall. Another structure contains a flexible “black box” theater, and radio/video production studios. A third structure, The Met Center, houses a large dining and multi-purpose hall for student and community activities along with a community health center, a bookstore, administrative offices, and flexible “outreach labs” where students can create their own operating businesses.

• Integrate with local street patterns and neighborhood scale
Incorporating the existing neighborhood street grid preserves the size and scale of existing block sizes and street beds. At the center of campus is a “town square”, providing outdoor recreational, festival and performing arts spaces for both school and community. The square is serviced by controlled vehicular and pedestrian access from all four sides. Entrances to the Met Center, Gymnasium, Auditorium and the schools front on the square.

• Address the relationship between aesthetic and educational content
Each facility is organized along a strict 16 foot building grid. This building module is expressed in both plan and elevation as an educational tool for the study of geometry, proportion and scale. Similar educational “manifestations” have been incorporated by structural, mechanical, electrical and landscaping consultants, resulting in a kind of neo-rationalist “information architecture”.

• Ongoing training and development
Community stakeholders resolved issues regarding the joint-use of the Met Center facility. Teachers and students determined how to maximize the benefits of the flexible wall and furnishing systems. A design training program is a standard component of the curriculum allowing the adequacy of the design to be continually researched, evaluated and modified on an ongoing basis by the students and teachers.

The Met serves as a national laboratory for research in the design of environments that meet the demands of contemporary learning strategies. Much is learned from teachers and students when they are allowed to play an active role in shaping their own learning environments. This user-based information has astonishing impact. Research generated by the Met regarding joint-use and community engagement is equally important. With national interest in small schools and “schools as centers of community”, the Met stands poised to contribute to the expanding body of field research in this area.

Educator Narrative

The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center
We shape our buildings: thereafter, they shape us. -Sir Winston Churchill

The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center has used innovative architectural designs to enhance student learning. Our philosophy is to educate one student at a time through real-world learning and community engagement translated into physical environments. By replacing traditional school designs that are made up of long corridors of isolated rooms, we have accommodated individual needs and have organized around the relationships that foster learning.

Integrated Design Process
An integrated design process that involved all of the stakeholders throughout the project was used. The educators, architect, construction company, students, community members and politicians gathered regularly for discussions and design studios. The buildings are living examples of our education philosophy, as students are involved in all phases of the project, from analyzing community needs and assets, to interning with the architect and construction company.

Building Community
We have created a school that integrates student learning with community life. By doing meaningful work at their internship sites and at school, students develop a sense of belonging both in the school building and in the context of the larger community. In turn, our school is a community center. The school assesses the needs of the neighborhood and makes new programs and services available to local families and organizations.

The Met has strived to integrate physically with the community, blending in with the scale and style of surrounding neighborhood buildings. There are no fences or barriers that separate the school from the community.

Building in Flexibility
Inside our school, spaces are designed to support the students’ real-world work outside of school. There are quiet, comfortable places for independent research and reflection; bright, active rooms for project and group work; and warm, welcoming spaces for family and community involvement. Thus, students have a choice of work environments that accommodate different types of projects and learning styles.

We have built flexibility and autonomy directly into our facility by utilizing floor-to-ceiling movable walls and modular furniture. When a school building is flexible, the teaching and learning that occur there can evolve as the students grow, the school progresses, and the world changes.

Lessons Learned
It has taken seven years to bring our vision to reality. During construction we used 1996 dollars to purchase materials priced at 2002 dollars. By pro-rating the bond fund needs in the future, fewer compromises will be made as well as increased opportunities for use of richer materials and more architectural details in our next project.

In addition, we are continually learning about the balance of visual connection and distraction, as well as privacy and supervision. As we learn from current situations, we can incorporate our new ideas into our future projects.

The Met
The Met is a place where learning is connected, where everyone is known, where a sense of community is nurtured, and where a sense of place is found.