K12 School Design
TABLE OF CONTENTS Bluestone Elementary School Harrisonburg, Virginia
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DESIGNING FOR EDUCATION Commitment to Learning Environments Designing for Health + Wellness Net-Zero Energy Leadership
02
TYPOLOGY EXPERIENCE
03
DESIGN APPROACH
Early Childhood
Building as a Teaching Tool
Elementary Schools
Evidence-Based Design
Middle Schools
Designing with Communities
High Schools Planning for Schools Independent Schools
We design s are for and ab
DISCOVERY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL — ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
spaces that bout learners.
DISCOVERY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL — ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
01 DESIGNING FOR EDUCATION
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Commitment to Learning Environments
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Designing for Health + Wellness
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Net Zero Energy Leadership
BUCKINGHAM COUNTY PRIMARY + ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS — DILLWYN, VIRGINIA
We believe investing in learning environments yields exponential benefits for children and communities.
Our design process is informed by the following beliefs: • Schools hold precious cargo • They serve their primary function during the day, when there is free and abundant daylight and solar energy • They are defacto centers of communities
• They are places where worldviews are shaped • And they are expressions of our greatest hopes and aspirations for future generations.
Commitment to Learning Environments We’ve dedicated our practice to designing great places to learn that are also great places to be. We believe happy, healthy, and high performing schools are foundational to the success of communities. This commitment to school design extends to VMDO’s designs of community centers, libraries, parks, recreation centers, and places of higher education. At its core, VMDO’s K12 practice is rooted in designing for learners and their learning journey at specific junctures of development – from early education centers; to elementary, middle, and high schools; to centers of innovation and technical training that complement K12 schools.
Our first project in 1976 was for a K12 school. In over 45 years, we have never failed to meet a scheduled school opening.
VMDO has executed 330+ K12 projects, with over 225 of them for repeat clients.
We are leaders in designing schools that double as teaching tools. Integrated in this leadership is a commitment to health – financial, human, and environmental – that ensures the investments made in schools translate into long-term community thriving. From research, we know that school design impacts student behavior, development, and academic performance. We are at the forefront of thinking about the relationship between design and impact. Our evidence-based designs foster flexibility and collaboration, support hands-on learning, and integrate health and wellness into schools of the future.
As leaders in net zero energy, we ensure projects not only achieve net zero certification but also integrate sustainable features that celebrate community, resilience, and environmental stewardship.
Designing for Health + Wellness Where children, adolescents, and young adults live, learn, and play impacts health and learning outcomes.
At VMDO, designing for health and wellness means not only focusing on reducing negative outcomes, like reduced absenteeism, social isolation. and stress among occupants; it also means promoting positive outcomes, like improved academic outcomes and teaching students about healthy lifestyles. Our desired result is more connected, better performing, healthier, and more resilient students both within and beyond our buildings. Well-designed spaces help students achieve their best. Increased ventilation and air filtration, acoustic privacy with visual openness, toxic-free materials and cleaning procedures, access to and views of nature, healthy eating options, and abundant natural light all contribute to less absenteeism and more engagement. As part of our Buckingham County Primary and Elementary Schools project (featured below), we partnered with public health researchers to co-author Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Design Guidelines for School Architecture which were published by the CDC and PLOS One, respectively. Featuring over 20 evidence-based spatial domains and 10 core healthy design principles, these design guidelines can be applied by school planners, architects, and educators all over the world to promote health and wellness in school design.
Health and wellness are values we share with our clients. Using a health equity framework, we work across disciplines to create architecture that emphasizes the connections between physical design and health while promoting active, engaged, and joyful learning.
Net Zero Energy Leadership VMDO is a recognized expert in net zero energy design, having designed the first LEED Zero Energy school and over 500,000 square feet of net zero educational and community spaces.
The U.S. Department of Energy launched the Net Zero Accelerator at Discovery Elementary School – a national partnership aimed at demonstrating how renewable energy translates into cost savings and enhanced learning environments.
High performance starts with significant reductions in a building’s use of energy and water. Depending on client goals, our school designs often go beyond conservation and include opportunities to harvest and reuse resources. These approaches often include natural daylighting, rainwater harvesting for flushing or irrigation, innovative strategies for conditioned air, and on-site production of clean electricity. By going beyond “using less,” our schools provide students and teachers with tangible examples of proactive, local solutions to our global environmental challenges. A pioneer in net zero energy school design, VMDO provides educational environments that are carbon-neutral, but datarich. As designers of environmental graphics and custom building dashboards, our schools provide tangible, ageappropriate environmental lessons, including real-time data on energy and water for use in school projects and lesson plans VMDO participates in the AIA 2030 Commitment, an industry initiative to make all new buildings and renovations carbonneutral by the year 2030. As signatories, we continually monitor and annually report the predicted energy performance of our projects, thereby helping to transform the industry and to build everyone’s capacity to address some of the most challenging issues of our time.
This is a net zero energy school! Alice West Fleet Elementary is the second of three net zero energy schools VMDO has designed for Arlington Public Schools. Sited adjacent to a middle school, park, and recreation center, the school transforms a parking lot into a community landscape that improves accessibility, connectivity, and sustainability for the entire 20-acre site.
FAUQUIER HIGH SCHOOL — WARRENTON, VIRGINIA
02 TYPOLOGY EXPERIENCE
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Early Childhood Education
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High Schools
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Elementary Schools
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Planning for Schools
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Middle Schools
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Independent Schools
Early Childhood Education Opportunities for experiential learning allow early learners to develop socially and emotionally while taking measured risks in a supportive environment.
With the increase in early childhood programs comes greater awareness of the appropriate architectural response to support early learners. A focus on cognitive development (as opposed to academic learning) differentiates early learning centers from elementary schools through a curriculum that caters to children’s social and emotional development. Appropriately sized furniture and fixtures – including shelves, counters, tables, seats, windows, benches, toilets, sinks, steps, and handrails – create environments that are custom-sized for young learners. Through this thoughtful scaling, children develop confidence in approaching new environments. VMDO’s early childhood environments emphasize selfdirected, experiential learning opportunities in relationshipbased settings. Rooted in principles of respect, responsibility, and community, and paired with measured risk-taking and opportunities for exploration, the design of early learning centers can set children on the path of lifelong learning.
The Elon W. Rhodes Early Learning Center received the 2020 Special/Small Project Award from the Association for Learning Environments.
Elementary Schools VMDO’s elementary schools demonstrate performance-based outcomes while engaging students in the building as a teaching tool.
At state, national, and international levels, VMDO’s elementary schools have achieved the following milestones: •
AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Awards
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International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Zero Energy
for Manassas Park Elementary School and Discovery
certification of Discovery Elementary School. The project
Elementary School – widely considered the highest honor
is the first verified Zero Energy building certified by the
for sustainable design.
collaborative partnership of the ILFI and New Buildings Institute (NBI).
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AIA Committee on Architecture for Education Awards for Manassas Park Elementary School and Buckingham
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USGBC LEED Zero Energy certification of Discovery
County Primary and Elementary Schools – recognizing
Elementary School. The project is the first school and third
educational design excellence in architecture.
building in the world to achieve this recognition.
Livable Buildings Award from UC Berkeley’s Center
•
Certification of the first three LEED Gold elementary
for the Built Environment – based on user surveys
schools in Virginia – Poquoson Elementary School,
demonstrating high occupant satisfaction, excellent
Manassas Park Elementary School, and Brownsville
design, and innovative operation strategies.
Elementary School.
Our approach to green schools articulates the building itself
Our school designs strive to be happy, healthy, and high performing. Crafting places of joy – schools where students and teachers can’t wait to get to in the morning, and don’t want to leave at night – is the highest and best contribution we can make to the communities we serve.
as a valuable education tool. With the school communities we serve, we align design strategies with actual curriculum content to maximize learning opportunities. Our goal is to grow the next generation of environmental stewards – true sustainability natives who will lead the global community forward in solving the complex issues of the 21st century.
“ I can see the difference in kids in this building versus other buildings. This building [Bluestone Elementary School] really encourages kids to be happy. Everything is designed with a purpose. You’ll see kids skipping in the halls. You’ll see kids stopping and looking at things that have been designed into the building. You just see happy kids.”
Craig Mackail Chief Operating Officer Harrisonburg City Public Schools
Middle Schools Middle school settings serve as the primary environment in which adolescents develop relationships with peers and hone key cognitive skills.
For many adolescents, school provides safety and stability. A strong sense of attachment, bonding, and belonging, and a feeling of being cared about characterize adolescents’ positive relationships with their teachers and their schools. This can be addressed by providing clear sight-lines and passive supervision, easy and immediate access to trusted adults, and transparency and connectedness in the learning environment. Teens are socially sensitive, placing a high importance on the perceptions of their peers. A large school can be intimidating in this context. This can be addressed through design by breaking down the large school and creating spaces for social connections at a variety of scales. Shared common spaces provide opportunities to “see-and-be-seen.” Teenagers are seeking to establish independence, including managing their own learning. Providing a variety of types and sizes of learning spaces, as well as flexible furniture and equipment, allows students to create a space that meets their specific learning needs. Further, as there are a wide variety of developmental levels and body sizes in this age group, providing a variety of types and sizes of furnishings supports student comfort and learning through ergonomics, posture, and movement.
Adolescents experience more physical growth and brain development during their middle school years than at any other time except for infancy.
This renovation enhances learning! Within the renovated Forest Middle School, learning is made visible – enhancing a sense of community among faculty, staff, and students. Differently-sized learning studios, seminar spaces, huddle rooms, and study booths complement classrooms while also supporting STEM/CTE learning with places that inspire creation and collaboration.
High Schools For many high school students, experiential opportunities can inspire a sense of ownership and uncover career pathways through the application of ideas learned in the classroom.
High school students are broadening their world views while sharpening their academic skills, emotional intelligence, and sense of self. Career & Technical Education (CTE) and STEAM settings help facilitate future workplace or academic experiences.
The design of high schools of the future must balance flexible
At the same time, students entering college and workplace
designs that can adapt to the needs and interests of each unique
settings are expected to be increasingly fluent in team-oriented
learner while also providing spaces that serve the student
technology and collaboration. High-tech and high-touch
body at large.
design features like one-to-one technology and adjustable furniture can accommodate different collaborative settings
Key to finding the right balance of scales, space types, and
while distance-learning tools can support collaboration across
program offerings involves prioritizing curriculum and
disciplines and distances.
personalized learning goals. For many high school students, experiential opportunities can inspire a sense of ownership
Ultimately, the goal of high school design is to create a seamless
and uncover career pathways through the application of ideas
educational experience that connects students, through the
learned in the classroom. Literacy training, STEAM coursework,
built environment, to a trajectory of success – from school, to
and career and technical education (CTE) deserve innovative
career and college opportunities, and beyond.
homes – ones with technical resources and collaborative settings that will prepare students for the future.
Flexible interiors empower learners! The Environmental Studies Academy at Western Albemarle High School provides students with a flexible learning environment that can be customized to the needs of the learner. Ease of access to the outdoors fosters feelings of wellness while enabling hands-on experimentation.
Planning for Schools Many examples of our significant built work originated with a master plan or feasibility study – detailed road maps that outline options for growth or renewal through prioritized sequences of development.
We are dedicated to seeing a project through to completion – from initial analysis and programming to post occupancy.
Initial planning gives form and definition to the full spectrum
As leaders in this process, we will help you best address key
of forces – cultural, physical, ecological, political, social, and
questions and concerns for the planning process. Working in
aesthetic – that shape the built environment and the public
close collaboration with school districts and their communities,
realm. A comprehensive planning process will synthesize these
VMDO develops planning options that address a multitude of
factors into plans, guidelines, and design strategies to inform
important design considerations, including:
future priorities. A clear consensus on the goals of a project will create common ground and provide a framework for evaluating
•
Once we have established a mutual understanding of the
Flexible programs and designs that support a variety of communities, learning needs, ages, and vocational skills
the program and design concepts as they develop. •
Educational spaces that incorporate digital tools and
project scope, we will collaborate on identifying and analyzing
technologies that prepare students for future careers and
key issues. Some key issues will be a matter of gathering
paths to education
research such as utility locations and parking capacity. Other issues will require the collaborative involvement of a variety of
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Facilities that support enrollment needs and related recruitment and retention efforts
stakeholders. Collecting research and information may involve: •
Evaluation of existing buildings and campus features
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Options for easy facility upkeep and maintenance
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Research on existing utilities and infrastructure
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Healthy spaces that facilitate movement, healthy eating,
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Observations on existing pedestrian and vehicular traffic
and access to nature • •
Collecting data on existing and planned parking
High performing systems that save money and offer payback options over the life of the building
Independent Schools VMDO’s first project in 1976 was for an independent school. Since then, we have collaborated with educational communities to enhance their campus planning and elevate building designs across typologies.
The collective expertise of our three studios – K12 Schools,
Understanding what drives student success at top universities makes us better designers for today’s K12 students, just as understanding what motivates young learners informs our designs for higher education.
Higher Education, and Athletics + Community – makes VMDO uniquely suited to partner with independent schools. From high performing learning environments and athletic facilities to master planning, health + wellness facilities, and residence halls, VMDO’s educational design experience across student-centered typologies is both broad and deep, building on over 45 years of knowledge-sharing and specialization. By celebrating learning in all of its diverse forms and expressions, and the potential of each child in much the same way, our designs support the development of curious, compassionate, and engaged twenty-first century learners. We understand the unique benefits of independent schools, and work with each client to maximize what is special about their campus setting. By helping to define goals around, for example, campus identity, global citizenship, and student leadership, we aim to create designs that are aligned with strategic planning and support outcomes for engaging, retaining, and cultivating students, teachers, and alumni.
EDNA KARR HIGH SCHOOL — NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
03 DESIGN APPROACH
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Building as a Teaching Tool
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Evidence-Based Design
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Designing with Communities
Building as a Teaching Tool Through graphics that celebrate the unique geography of a place, students learn to become caretakers of each other, their school, and the natural world.
Encouraging Environmental Stewardship
Celebrating Place
Environmental graphics and wayfinding help showcase what is special about a school, its people, and its natural and historical contexts. Graphic theming and storytelling can give identity to a grade, a neighborhood, and a classroom while building comradery and reinforcing curriculum and culture.
Our approach to school design articulates the building itself as a valuable education tool.
Environmental graphics and wayfinding can also encourage healthy behaviors. Stairways, water fountains, healthy food options, and sustainable materials can be co-located with related facts and lessons that inspire healthy habits and behaviors. Fauquier High School (pictured right) was one of the first recipients of the USGBC’s LEED innovation credit for Active Occupants. Its large stairway graphics provide friendly reminders to take the stairs! Discovery Elementary School (pictured left) earned full points within the LEED Innovation credit category which includes the School as a Teaching Tool credit. To foster a culture of stewardship and accountability, sustainable features such as the photovoltaic array are made visible and accessible through learning opportunities like a rooftop solar lab. Data from the adjustable solar lab is fed into the school’s building energy dashboard, allowing students to conduct experiments with realtime data.
Supporting Health + Wellness
Evidence-Based Design VMDO’s evidence-based approach combines best practices, thought leadership, and robust analysis to help our clients make informed decisions.
Each of our schools builds on decades of research, user surveys, and innovation to create a continuous feedback loop of improvement. We track the performance of our buildings over time in order to increase their efficiency and save owners money. This collective knowledge-sharing ensures that each of our designs improves upon its predecessor while being tailored to the unique needs and locations of each school community. We use robust Post-Occupancy Evaluations and building systems commissioning to ensure that our designs perform as intended and work with industry experts to improve outcomes. By conducting Post-Occupancy Evaluations and contributing research, we are able to share lessons learned with our clients, our collaborators, and peers to continuously elevate the conversation around student-centered school design. Our focus on user outcomes led to Bluestone Elementary School receiving the 2019 Livable Buildings Award from the Center for the Built Environment. Based on occupant surveys and user feedback (excerpted below), this award demonstrates how our relentless focus on occupant health and building performance leads to happier and healthier building occupants and higher performing buildings.
The Happiest School in America, Bluestone Elementary School: 76% of Building Users Said the Building Makes Them Feel Happy
Health as a Community Priority: 93% of Building Users Feel More Connected to Nature and the Outdoors
School as a Community Resource: 86% of Building Users Say the School is a Community Asset
Creating a Safe Learning Environment: 72% of Building Users Believe the Building Promotes a Sense of Safety among Occupants
Designing with Communities VMDO combines the vision of the client with the power of design to solve the planning, programming, and site challenges that are unique to each project both in the short and long terms.
Our approach relies on establishing rapport with users early in the process, and delivering services with humility, patience and dedication. Building trust starts with listening and being active and present participants in necessary dialogue from day one. Ultimately, our job is to make sure that all analysis, design work, and research is presented in a way that is understandable and facilitates effective decision-making. Gathering input from stakeholders and community members is a highly interactive process. As a team, we are prepared to gather input through interviews and focus groups, interactive workshops and programming sessions, online surveys, and on-site engagement. An important part of the design process involves identifying common goals and arriving at a solution that has broad appeal. Through a well-organized process, we ensure that stakeholders and community members feel heard and have opportunities to share feedback. As a JUST-labeled firm, VMDO publicly reports on 22 social and equity indicators and engages staff in ongoing dialogue about
By incorporating input from diverse groups of stakeholders and addressing multi-faceted challenges head-on, our educational designs provide solutions that create meaningful places while respecting each community’s social and environmental context.
what it means to be a socially just and equitable organization. Building on the JUST framework, we see community engagement as a means to give power and influence to traditionally marginalized communities – including students!
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“VMDO goes out of its way to understand the community’s culture, needs, and the program that’s desired. They take the time to understand the details, to get the small points right. They understand the nature of community; they understand the nature of what it is to be taught; they understand the academic baseline and the expectation of improvement. They work to make every bit of that fit.”
Frank Jones Former Manassas Park School Board Chairman + Former Manassas Park Mayor
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For more information on K-12 Education work please contact: Wyck Knox, AIA, LEED AP BD+C knox@vmdo.com Rob Winstead, AIA, ALEP, LEED AP BD+C winstead@vmdo.com