Jefferson Houston PreK-8 School by VMDO Architects

Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School Alexandria City Public Schools

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Extended Learning Area: Academic Use

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Planning Process ACPS embraced replacing the former Jefferson-Houston K-5 School with a new PreK-8 School in order to support growing enrollment + improve academic outcomes. The only school in northern Virginia to earn “Priority” status in 2012 (when planning for the PreK-8 school was first underway) – a new Jefferson-Houston offered Alexandria City Public Schools the opportunity to rebuild both the school and the community support needed to guarantee its success. As part of the intensive planning process, the design team authored a set of Educational Specifications which connected the community’s needs to the school’s innovative PreK-8 program and created a shared sense of ownership for the new school. Drawing on the high-density setting of the school’s urban site, the Educational Specifications outline a “nexus approach,” wherein people, programs, and services are clustered in close proximity to each other to maximize resource sharing and reinforce the neighborhood context.

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Site Considerations The new school site contains play areas and structures for all grade levels, including a regulation-size synthetic turf playing field. Located in the urban Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, the new 125,000 sf Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School replaces the existing 83,385 sf facility â&#x20AC;&#x201C; increasing student capacity from 350 to 800. The functionality of the existing school was maintained throughout construction to ease the transition between schools and maximize learning opportunities for students. A prominent feature of the new school is its response to opportunities in urban design. Building heights have been shaped to respond to site boundaries and the scale of surrounding buildings. Located in close proximity to the Durant Center, Old Town Pool, and Buchanan Park, the site creates a strong connection between the school and these facilities, while maintaining the integrity of their larger public use.

Site Plan

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Jefferson-Houston School

Media Center

Bus Drop Off

Queen Street

Parking Lot

Durant Center

Playground

N. West Street

Old Town Pool

Buchanan Park

Play Field Gymnasium

Cameron Street

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Playground + Turf Field

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

View to George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Proximity to Queen Street

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Community Context Building elements were thoughtfully placed to emphasize a sense of community and the school's urban context.

An aspirational community school, Jefferson-Houston serves a unique “priority” population while also attracting families and businesses to the area through its renewed urban context. The school’s major building elements were thoughtfully placed to emphasize this special nexus of community and context: •

A spacious, transparent gymnasium provides a strong, shared-use civic presence at the intersection of Cameron and N. West Streets.

•

The Media Center serves as a monumental terminus for Queen Street, above which is a rooftop garden and outdoor classroom for students and community partners.

•

The school’s prominent public entry is placed on axis with Peyton Street and strengthened by a dynamic, circular tower. The tower serves as an urban and academic locus for the school, housing communal learning spaces. A rooftop observation deck serves as an urban observatory providing views to the neighboring Washington Masonic National Memorial monument.

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Program for Main Academic Wing

4 PO

es 3-

Grad

8 PO

es 7-

Grad

1 es Grad

6 PO

es 5-

Grad

1-2 P

3 GR AD ES EK -K

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Extended Learning Area

First Floor Cafe Dining

Sensory Room

Media Center

White Box Theater

Extended Learning Area

Gymnasium

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

A Neighborhood Environment The school's “neighborhood” arrangement allows students to learn from each other and model good behavior to those both younger and older. The Jefferson Houston PreK-8 School features grade-specific “pods” carefully arranged, both horizontally and vertically, to provide adjacencies between similarly-aged students as well as exposure to different grade levels. Each “pod” serves as the home base for two grades. While grades 1-8 are housed in the main academic wing, PreK and K students are housed in an adjacent wing designed to support the needs of the school’s youngest learners. “Pods” for grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8 include six classrooms (three per grade) grouped around an extended learning area – flexible spaces where students study, work, and eat. Distributed evenly across the building are school-wide spaces for music, art, STEM, and CTE (career technical education). Overlooking the terminus of the main academic wing is a shareduse Media Center, while at the end of the PreK and K wing is a double-height community gymnasium. Professional learning areas, offices, and meeting spaces are strategically scattered as well, offering passive surveillance strategies and resource support for teachers and staff.

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

School Entry + Community-Use Field

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Meeting the Needs of Students Jefferson-Houston serves several distinct populations, all of which require specialized interior environments. Not all Jefferson-Houston students benefit from an energetic, stimulating environment. As an informal “magnet school” for the multiple disabled, performing and visual arts, and PreK communities, Jefferson-Houston serves several distinct populations, all of which require a specialized interior environment – acoustically, visually, and spatially. Ensuring that the interiors were accurately tuned and conditioned for each audience was an important design strategy, both in supporting current learning needs and attracting future students to the school. Shortly after the school’s opening, a kindergartner commented that the purple passageway to her classroom (pictured right) “made her whole body feel happy.” This vital sense of well-being is supported by the school’s flexible programming and appropriately scaled and modulated physical environment.

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Distributed Dining Jefferson-Houston replaces the traditional centralized cafeteria concept with a distributed dining approach.

Instead of being separated from the rest of the school day, lunch is recast as an opportunity to integrate the social, communal, and educational aspects of mealtime into the learning environment. This holistic approach allows academic performance, student development, and nutritional education to interrelate seamlessly, spark new connections and inspirations, and provide extra support for students throughout the school day.

Dining distribution requires three main steps, described below: 1.

Food is prepared in the school's ground level kitchen and stored in mobile warming units

The warming units are then transported by elevator to smaller serveries and dining areas found in each of the four main Extended Learning Areas (ELA)

Students travel in their grade-adjacent "pods" to each ELA, where they dine and learn together

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Building As A Teaching Tool Sustainable strategies are expressed within a modern learning environment to create unique features.

Energy efficient and environmentally responsible goals are embedded throughout the school. LEED Gold certified, the building acts as a teaching tool, encouraging students to participate in the revealed ecological and engineering functions of the building and its surrounding landscape. Outside, sustainable features include on-site stormwater management, water efficient landscaping, and a large cistern for capturing rainwater for reuse. Meticulously tuned for sunstainability, the faรงades incorporate a variety of shading strategies to maximize daylighting while reducing glare and energy consumption. Inside, cheerful lighting strategies and bright colors create a kinetic learning environment for students. Frequent injections of interior glass in classrooms and learning areas foster an open, collaborative environment that invites students in and connects them to their surroundings, as an aspirational community school should do!

Alexandria City Public Schools Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School

Learning Outcomes Named a low-performing “priority school” in 2012, Jefferson-Houston has demonstrated marked growth in student performance since its re-design. In addition to a new school aligned with the vision and goals of the community, a main outcome of the planning effort was an Educational Specification document, crafted to build a sense of responsibility for the school’s success and to connect the community’s needs to the school’s new PreK-8 program. Named a low-performing “priority school” in 2012, Jefferson-Houston has demonstrated marked growth in student performance since its re-design. According to Scholastic Reading and Math Inventories, since 2012, the number of students performing below state standards in reading and math has significantly declined. In 2013, the school met all math targets for the Standard of Learning tests and saw a sharp reduction in the gap between average student scores and the state benchmark. This achievement held true for ESL students, economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and minority students. The school continues to close gaps in core academic areas, thanks to a culture of continuous improvement established during the planning process.

VMDO Architects vmdo.com | 434.296.5684 200 E Market St Charlottesville, VA 22902 1200 18th Street NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036

For more information on K-12 Education work please contact: Bob Moje, FAIA, LEED AP moje@vmdo.com Wyck Knox, AIA, LEED AP knox@vmdo.com