NORTHGATE ELEMENTARY: CELEBRATING CULTURE AND WAYS OF LEARNING

James Wohlers

Northgate Elementary’s 260 students speak a total of 25 languages. Global in scope, the languages range from Central and South America, to Europe, to the Middle East, to Africa, and to Southeast Asia. My redesign of the schoolyard and adjacent edges seeks to build upon this cultural diversity, extending it beyond the building through experiential and ecological systems, and providing students opportunities to express their own culture in addition to learning about others.

These cultural, experiential and ecological systems allow for multiple ways of learning as they incorporate safe and fun movement, participatory learning, and food systems, culminating in a sense of place within the greater community.

Map Sources: Google Earth and WAGDA, https://wagda.lib.washington.edu/data/geography/wa_cities/seattle/index.html

Bird’s Eye view of Northgate Elementary looking southwest. North 120th St. is redesigned according to “SEA Street” principles for stormwater management. Sections A and B are shown on following pages. N

Context

Searching for opportunities to extend learning beyond the classroom reveals the nearby green spaces of Haller Lake and Northacres Park. Within walking distance, these destinations provide ways to learn about the natural environment. Rainwater can also contribute to outdoor learning by capturing runoff from the school roof as well as directing it from 1st Ave NE into adjacent bioswales.

EXISTING NOISE MAP OUTFALL DRAIN ACTIVITY

EXISTING HYDROLOGY

Source: https://wagda.lib.washington.edu/data/geography/wa_cities/ seattle/index.html

Source: https://wagda.lib.washington.edu/data/geography/wa_cities/ seattle/index.html

Northgate Elementary students wanting to play outside are limited to hardscaped areas with little diversity in activity or materials. A 10 foot retaining wall surrounds the north courtyard, preventing easy access to the adjacent grass field and containing play within a zone of asphalt. The smaller southern courtyard faces similar challenges as 5 foot concrete walls surround the play space with limited access to natural materials. In addition, many cars travel along 1st Ave NE at high speeds as no physical traffic calming measures exist.

Improving circulation means making safe the walking and cycling conditions along 1st Ave NE. It also means breaking down the barriers between hardscape and softscape, allowing for ADA access up to the field, and creating a variety of ways to roll down or climb up the slope separating the blacktop from the grass field.

Goals And Precedents

Expression of Culture within a community garden: Danny Woo International District community garden, Seattle

Source: https://baklavabaklavabaklava.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/img_6150.jpg

Cultural Objects from home found throughout site: Superkilen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Source: http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/ jpgs/copenhagen/superkilen_b141212_i5.jpg

Conceptual Design: extending learning beyond the classroom

Licton Springs-Haller Lake Open House

UW Master of Landscape Architecture Capstone Studio 18 April 2016

Trellis as canvas for cultural displays: Magnuson Park, Seattle

Source: http://weddingsbyjenn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/seattle-documentary-wedding-photographer-at-magnuson-park-hangar-summer-2013026026.jpg

ECOLOGICAL:

Produce an ecologically balanced and culturally relevant plant community that is integrated into the local environment.

CULTURAL:

Provide space for temporary self-expression, allowing present and future generations of children to express themselves and appreciate other cultures, too.

EXPERIENTIAL:

Design for multiple senses and ways of learning, through large spaces where one can run and scream and through small spaces where one can sit and think.

IDENTITY:

Enable an artful rhythm of self-expression and playful circulation that courses through the school, indicating that children learn and grow here.

Reimagined section illustrating softer transition between play zones, providing opportunities for different types of play and rest and interaction with rainwater

Design

Currently, the main entrance to Northgate Elementary acts solely as a threshold between indoor and outdoor environments, with little opportunity for children and teachers to gather or for parents to linger as they wait for their child. The proposed entrance shifts parking to the street, allowing for seating and gathering to happen next to the entrance in the form of benches and a set of semi-circular stairs.

Connecting to the other outdoor areas around the school, a path would lead through patches of wildflowers and edible plants, underneath the canopy of an existing spruce tree and down to the sidewalk eventually leading north to the entrance of the proposed community garden.

Providing spaces to sit outside, enjoy the smells and colorful array of sensory plants, and sounds of passing birds can not only engage students and teachers at Northgate Elementary but bring together the surrounding community. As the school gains a stronger sense of place, it sends a message to neighbors of the great work and energy happening inside the school. Why not disperse some of that indoor energy and provide students and teachers the space to spread it to the outdoor environment?

Ecological Design

BUNCH BERRY

STELLAR’S JAY

BUSHTIT

CORCEL SPANISH PEPPER

OXALIS

LADY FERN

NATIVE GRASSES

BIOSWALE

RAINGARDEN

DAGGERLEAF RUSH

THAI BASIL

RAISED BEDS

Images Sources:

Lady Fern: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/images/ladyfern/athyrium_filix-femina_lg.jpg

Oxalis: https://www.cals.ncsu.edu/plantbiology/ncsc/containerWeeds/images/Oxalis_stricta_habit.jpg

Dagger-Leaf Rush: http://science.halleyhosting.com/nature/cascade/mtadams/rush/juncus/ensifolius/ensifolius1a.jpg

Bunch Berry: http://images.summitpost.org/original/448863.JPG

Corcel Pepper: https://www.osborneseed.com/content/images/thumbs/0020801_pepper_corcel_f1_untreated.jpeg

Iris Versicolor: https://www.prairiemoon.com/images/D/Iris-versicolor-Northern-Blue-Flag-weland.jpg

THAI BASIL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Thai_basil_with_flowers.jpg

SECTION A-A’

Images Sources:

Slough Sedge: http://www.nwplants.com/images/wetlands/car_obn_jko_june08_slough%20sedgesm.jpg

Stellar’s Jay: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/environment/brochures/ELC_Programs_Spring.pdf

American Robin: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/environment/brochures/ELC_Programs_Spring.pdf

Service Berry: https://www.eskimo.com/~enumclaw/Tips/Pocket%20Gardens/Resources/Serviceberry.gif

Bushtit: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/environment/brochures/ELC_Programs_Spring.pdf

Rosemary: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Rosemary_bush.jpg

Lavender: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Single_lavendar_flower02.jpg

Gathering Space

How can we provide children with the opportunity to express themselves, and to also learn to appreciate other cultures? How can school landscapes promote individual student agency and celebrate a multicultural education? With so much diversity present at the school, it is important that each child knows their culture is special and that other cultures are special, too.

The redesigned southern courtyard walls seek to empower students and build appreciation of the diversity present at the school. Outdoor chalkboards, painted in geometric and notebook patterns gives students the chance to draw or write down their thoughts and for teachers to conduct outdoor lessons. Also, words saying “Hello” in the 25 different languages spoken at the school are scattered across each wall, creating a fun opportunity for students to find their own language. This outdoor area now combines play with learning and provides current and future students the chance to leave their mark upon the school.

“...in conversations are found the embryos of projects”

Ann Lewin, in:

Edwards, Carolyn, Lella Gandini, and George Forman, eds. 1998. The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach--Advanced Reflections. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, p. 346.