Nibley Park Elementary School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

Community Environment:
This new school welcomes and engages students and families from diverse economic backgrounds. The project was planned to be a visual symbol of learning to the community-at-large, utilizing giant polygons in playful colors to enhance both the actual and the symbolic aspects of the educational process. The building fosters community use after school hours by exploiting an easily accessible Media Center, Multi-purpose room, and Office area. Additionally, four wings of classrooms with Activity Centers can be closed or open as required for community use.

Planning Process:
The school district utilizes a site-based governance system, which allows the building to respond to the individual community. The planning process took place over a three-month period, involving a committee of educators, administrators, maintenance personnel, community members, and architects. The opinions of our littlest clients were also involved in the design process. The results of this process profoundly influenced the learning environment here, generating fun places for students and adults to collaborate.

Learning Environment:
The key element of the design is the arrangement of classrooms into four academic learning centers, or houses, each surrounding an engaging central activity space. The central collaboration spaces provide a highly flexible and extremely visible environment for student group interaction, including daily access to computers. Students can participate throughout the day in group projects, experience group presentations, and meet with adult tutors, while adults can meet together or with students for a plethora of learning opportunities in these spaces. Adjacent to each activity space is a teacher prep room/office which provides a home base for the teachers in each learning center to meet and plan integrated curricula. The solution is extremely successful in the enhancement of the learning process by providing a convenient and easily supervised flexible space that responds to the need for large and small group gatherings.

Physical Environment:
Each of the four academic centers is identified by a primary shape and color: circle, triangle, square and pentagon in red, yellow, blue and green. These shapes and colors provide a recognizable element for the students to identify “their” learning center. The color and texture of the building materials are integrated into the building theme to engage the students’ imaginations.

The building has an intriguing relationship to the site and surrounding environment: built as a replacement school on an existing site, this facility was constrained to grow within an existing neighborhood, in which the houses range in era from the 1920’s to the 1990’s. Because there is no consistent architectural context, the committee focused on appealing to the aesthetics of the children attending the school. The mission suggested by the committee: “… create a facility so appealing to the students that they can’t wait to get to school each morning.”

Although the school district could not afford to undergo the LEED design process, sustainability was a key factor in the design of the building — cooling is accomplished through a 2-stage evaporative system, long life-cycle building materials were utilized, and nearly all furnishings and equipment were salvaged from the existing facility. The design team worked to incorporate ideals engendered in the design of sustainable buildings whenever and wherever budget would permit.

Educator Narrative

Our Elementary started this school year in a building that has made all of us very happy, especially the students. The journey through construction to completion began as our building committee met with the architects. The architects had a vision for our school that has met all of our needs. The vision was not blurred by personal perceptions about what we needed here. They listened carefully to our comments and concerns. That is why we have the “best stage” in the district. That is why we have pods created around learning opportunities with plenty of natural light and windows. That is why we have a playground that serves our little kindergartners as well as our rambunctious sixth grade students. And that is why we have colors and shapes that interact with each other and help to create an energy that has all of us looking forward to each and every school day.

Before school began, I sent an e-mail off to all of our district personnel, as well as our School Board Members, indicating that we had just moved into the perfect building. My personal favorite is the great use of space. It is very efficient. The reception area is spacious and professional. The teachers can enter the building from a private parking lot and take are of all their needs (socializing, drinking their morning coffee, or copying in the faculty work room) before heading off to their pods to greet their children. The media center and my office are other examples of remarkable spaces in this building. I knew that the building was well designed when the day before school began I walked through the building and chatted with teachers. Each teacher felt that he/she had the best room in the whole building. We invite you to drop by and experience the positive energy firsthand.

- Principal