Tantasqua Regional High School

Design Patterns

Welcoming Entry: Both teachers and students value the main entrance. The seating areas placed throughout the outdoor space creates comforting atmosphere and has become a favorite place for the students to gather. Significant community recreational use of swimming pool and field house with indoor running track dictated separate after-hours entrance.

Art, Music, Performance: The auditorium and music spaces play a significant role because of the school’s commitment to creating curricular and extra-curricular opportunities to participate in and appreciate the arts. Course offerings such as Foundations of Theatre, Vocal Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble encourage students to perform, create, understand and respond to drama and music. The auditorium and music suite were designed for these programs as well as for hosting performances for the surrounding communities. Flexibility as well as site lines and acoustic considerations for both music and drama had to be accommodated. Security during after hours performances was also addressed. Housed on two floors, the auditorium is served by two lobbies, including the main lobby. The two-tiered auditorium seats 750 with a cross aisle intersecting the space to allow a more intimate feel for smaller groups. Full professional sound and lighting are incorporated into the space as well as a full fly tower. The area behind the stage houses practice rooms, an electric music room, dressing rooms, band practice and choral practice spaces. Natural wood finishes were used to create welcoming environment.

Physical Fitness: field house facility with indoor track and a natatorium

Dispersed Technology: 2 computer labs, 1 language/computer lab,and a TV production studio

Indoor-Outdoor Connection:

Flexible Spaces:

Watering Hole Space: The corridors have window seating providing gathering spaces for chance encounters.

Daylight and Solar Energy: Care was taken to introduce natural light to all portions of this curved path through a variety of techniques - roof monitors, single loaded configuration, clerestories.

Full Spectrum Lighting:

Sustainable Elements and Building as 3-D Text: Sustainable design examples include: utilizing the pool water to supplement domestic flow eliminating the need for a cistern; humidity control /heat recovery are used with the pool HVAC.

Connected to the Community: As for the academic program, the career /technical spaces are directly related to the local employers needs. A key example was the development of the newly introduced Photonics program. This program was developed as a public /private partnering between the school and the local photonics industry. The teaching position salary, for instance, is shared between the photonics industry in the region and the school system. The program, and space design was also a collaborative effort ensuring that the learning environment can best educate and prepare the students interested in this field. Significant community recreational use of swimming pool and field house with indoor running track dictated separate after-hours entrance

Bringing It All Together: During programming, extensive meetings were held with key user groups including students. The building is conceived of as an educational village – an assemblage of individual identities informally arranged on a rural hillside.