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student interpretations of francis parker school
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PERSPECTIVE
The primar y goal of learning environments in the 21st centur y is to facilitate a culture and community of lifelong learning. In response, both pedagogy and architecture must allow for education to be customized for and by the student. The evolving paradigm shifts the focus to learning — helping students develop skills of accessing, filtering, and sharing information. Whether through project-based learning labs, hands-on experiments, or multi-media production studios, INNOVATIVE schools have unique spaces that incubate ground-breaking, inspirational, and cross-disciplinary learning. As they encourage collegial interaction and provocative discourse, the result will be a learner-centered environment expressive of ingenuity and creative problem solving. Traditional classrooms have given way to studio-type spaces that can be configured in a variety of ways to accommodate both individual study as well and group collaboration. These mutable, FLEXIBLE spaces support multi-disciplinary learning and allow changing programs to be absorbed by the building over time. A
building with a long life and loose fit will provide the ability to adapt and change with education. A successful campus must also be a unique place that is culturally appropriate, regionally responsive, environmentally authentic, and inspirational to students. The architecture should fit the location – climate, landscape, and regional craft – and respect the surrounding COMMUNITY. Here students can learn to engage the world on a regional and global scale in a safe and comfortable environment. It is also necessary for the campus to provide places that foster interaction – spaces where people of all ages want to gather and share their studies, ideas, and work. ECOLOGY is a key element in designing 21st century schools. Ecology seeks to do more with less, imbue a sense of place, and integrate the natural surroundings. Controlled use of daylight, natural ventilation, and views makes a demonstrably better learning environment, and high performance building design can reduce operating costs substantially. In a building about inquiry, innovation, and resourcefulness, a school’s connection to the earth’s natural systems frames those efforts. A critical part of discipline in this information age involves disconnecting from the myriad stimuli and allowing the information to be absorbed, considered, and understood. As a necessary complement to educational spaces that promote collaboration and community, schools must provide quiet spaces and places that foster REFLECTION and personal introspection.
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NOVATION 9 PLACES FOR LEARNING
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“Lake|Flato’s creative team was able to capture the blend of form and function, utility and beauty that is so important to a modern academic institution.” Les Frost, Headmaster St. Matthews Episcopal School
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21st centur y learning environments inspire and nurture innovation in the curriculum schools share with students. They catalyze students to think creatively, work with peers in cross disciplinar y ways, apply knowledge, and share this created content with the world. To create unique, innovative environments requires an equally specific process within which to design. Lake|Flato facilitates interactive community workshops, personal inter views, and online blogs that allow fertile communication among the school community and with the project team. This dialogue creates unique, timely solutions that reflect a school’s culture. 15 PLACES FOR LEARNING
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MMUNITY 17 PLACES FOR LEARNING
“Lake|Flato provided a campus that celebrated itself as we celebrate each student…unique and special, but part of the integrated school community. When prospective parents and students come to campus and jaws drop, all the parents wish they could come to school here…” Kevin Yaley, Head of School Francis Parker School
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Much of what students learn is in preparation of placing them within a global community. We think they are most comfortable doing this if their learning environments are anchored to the place in which they reside. We strive to create modern solutions that connect to a school’s community, culture, histor y, climate, landscape, and building craft. Our designs for schools are never imported from another school design — they are unique and specific. While the outside of the campus should fit a specific place, the interiors need to foster a sense of community . These hubs can be active and contemplative as gathering spaces for group learning and celebration.
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ECOLOGY
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Number Sense. Francis Parker School’s High-Performance Buildings netted over $100,000 in rebates and a projected $60,000 annual energy savings compared to code-compliant buildings.
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We see our team as stewards of your precious resources — families, financial, environmental — such that design and sustainability are inseparable. We seek to use what comes to us freely — daylight, views, natural ventilation — to make demonstrably better learning environments. We also expect it to make a better bottom line for our clients. Recycling, water savings, and high performance energy design yield significant, tangible results. We expect to exceed codes by 30%, 50%, or even produce net-zero projects with a blending of good design, efficient systems, and on-site energy generation. These successes create projects that become integrated with the learning ethos of the school. 31 PLACES FOR LEARNING
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EXIBILITY 33 PLACES FOR LEARNING
“… t hey skillfully wove our new structures in amongst the historic, creating a campus that is contextual and contemporar y … a modern, progressive architecture that is reflective of its youthful spirit.” David Robinson, Chairman Carver Academy
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Schools of the 21st centur y have to be places of flexibility and adaptability — this is imperative for absorbing new or changing learning modalities. We look to program and design spaces that have long life by having a loose fit. Spaces that are easily and comfortably changed to support a variety of settings. We accomplish this by opening spaces to one another, or outdoors, to extend learning environments. We also design mutable building systems, allowing spaces to evolve with the needs of the school.
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FLECTION 41 PLACES FOR LEARNING
“…Lake|Flato integrated this beautiful site into the heart of the school with an abundance of light, wood features, views, and landscaping…warm and inviting to young parents and children looking for a ‘home’ away from home.” Jerry Christian, CEO Sunshine Cottage School for the Deaf 43 PLACES FOR LEARNING
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Architect Louis Kahn once remarked, “Architecture starts with the immeasurable, proceeds through the measurable, and then returns to the immeasurable.” We think that may also define the arc of a student learning experience in the 21st centur y — moving from aspirations, through demonstration, to a trajector y into an ever-changing global community. If we create learner-centered environments at a school, we will empower lifelong learners with roots to the school and a view of the world.
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INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DESIGN EXPERIENCE
Francis Parker School San Diego, CA Cranbrook Kingswood Girls’ Middle School Bloomfield Hills, MI Indian Springs School Birmingham, AL Sunshine Cottage San Antonio, TX Nen Mexico School for the Arts Santa Fe, NM St. Francis School Master Plan Louisville, KY St. Matthew's School Pacific Palisades, CA Sayre School Lexington, KY Indian Springs School | Birmingham, AL
Forsyth School Master Plan St. Louis, MO Academy Of Our Lady Of Peace Master Plan San Diego, CA Texas Military Institute Episcopal School Master Plan San Antonio, TX
Rivertree Academy New Campus Master Plan Fort Worth, TX Greenhill School Dallas, TX Will Smith Zoo School San Antonio, TX Carver Academy & Community Cultural Center San Antonio, TX San Antonio Academy San Antonio, TX Awty International School | Houston, TX
San Antonio Montessori School San Antonio, TX St. Luke's Episcopal School San Antonio, TX Bishop Noland Episcopal School Master Plan Baton Rouge, LA Austin Waldorf School Austin, TX DeBakey High School for Health Professions Houston, TX Adams 12 STEM School (In Design Phases) Bloomfield, CO Eleanor Kolitz Hebrew Language Academy San Antonio, TX
UAIC Tribal School | Loomis, CA
Awty International School Houston, TX Park Tudor School Masterplan and Wellness Center Indianapolis, IN Fort Worth Country Day Lower School Fort Worth, TX UAIC Tribal School and Education Center Loomis, CA
New Mexico School for the Arts | Santa Fe, NM
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HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
Established in 1984, Lake|Flato has gained national recognition for architecture that is grounded in the belief that design and sustainability are inseparable pieces of a coherent, placebased approach to building that successfully merges with the landscape. In collaboration with our clients, Lake|Flato creates buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and authentic, artful and well-crafted. We believe that architecture should respond to its particular place and be a natural partner with the environment. By employing sustainable strategies to a wide variety of building types and scales, the firm designs architecture that conserves energy and natural resources while creating high performance buildings and healthy environments for the building’s occupants. Lake|Flato is a national leader in the design of school education environments. Our team approaches each school and its diverse issues in unique ways, searching for appropriate solutions that yield a purposeful connection between the school’s pedagogy, campus, and its architecture. Our designs balance visceral connections to place and culture with the science of high performance learning environments. By creating more cohesive campus communities, we seek to enhance students’ academic and social growth, as well as inspire faculty and families alike.
annual retreat at kickapoo ranch 53 PLACES FOR LEARNING
LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT Lake|Flato believes that architecture and sustainability are inseparable, and that buildings should be beautiful and affordable while promoting healthy living. With these goals in mind, we help our clients understand the necessity and attainability of a sustainable approach to all architecture. Since the firm’s inception more than 30 years ago, environmental concerns have been integral to our design approach.
NATIONAL AIA COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
TOP TEN GREEN PROJECTS
Eleven Lake|Flato-designed projects have received national AIA COTE Top Ten Green Awards, The American Institute of Architects’ highest honor for excellence in sustainable design.
Austin Central Library 2020 Marine Education Center 2020 Georgia Tech Krone Engineered Biosystems Building 2018 Dixon Water Foundation Josey Pavilion 2016 H-E-B Mueller Market 2016 ASU Health & Wellness Center 2014 Pearl Brewery / Full Goods Warehouse 2013 ASU Polytechnic Academic District 2012 Livestrong Foundation Headquarters 2011 Shangri La Nature Center 2009 Government Canyon 2007 World Birding Center 2006 UTHSC School of Nursing 2006 LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE
Dixon Water Foundation Josey Pavilion (certified) UNC Botanical Garden Plant Biodiversity Research Center (seeking)
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L AKE | FL ATO ARCHITECTS, INC. 2020 311 3RD S T REE T S A N A N TONIO T E X A S 782 05 P 210.2 27. 3 3 3 5 W L A K EFL ATO.COM For more information on schools, contact:
GREG PAPAY, FAIA
gpapay@l akefl ato.com
BR ANDI RICKEL S, AIA br ickel s@l akefl ato.com
Endsheet Drawings by Francis Parker Intermediate School Students Catherine Brandon, Myla Andrews, Alison Carey, Maria Azcarraga, Ted Sullivan, Hailey Stuart, Jack Dodge, Nicole Magbanua, Cole Landolt, Jaime Robbins, Riley Faulk, Erin Szabo, Caroline Edwards, Jennifer Wineholt, Tara Naficy
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