2008 Leroy F. Greene Design & Planning Award Winner Profiles
 |
Modernization/Reconstruction Award of Merit Vanden High School Travis Unified School District |
| The high school was originally built for 800 students. The challenge was to replace portable classrooms with permanent classrooms that would reorder the campus and make possible student identification with smaller learning communities within the new 1400-student enrollment. New classrooms are designed in flexible buildings housing 6 classrooms each and presenting different faces on each orientation, both to optimize daylighting and to create variety on the campus when they are repeated. By defining courtyards of differing character with the new classroom buildings, art studios and music rehearsal spaces, learning communities in the arts and in technology have physical areas of the campus to call their own. |
|
|
Each six-classroom building also includes a teacher workroom and a shared flexible-use space that can be used as either student or teacher workspace. In an existing double-loaded corridor building the modernization makes new doors into classrooms from the outside and converts corridor space to teacher prep space. High performance measures squeezed into the original budget and incorporated into the design include energy efficient HVAC and daylight compensation lighting systems with a calculated 35% improvement over Title 24 requirements; low hang roofs with deep overhangs over entrances and south windows; HVAC mounts on vertical walls to avoid penetrations through the roof, to prevent acoustic intrusion into the learning environment; and more courtyards with generous planting that provides shade for student socialization. |
The Jury said, What they liked about this project is that it used modernization methods as they should be - an update to a building for program needs, as well as mechanical needs. One of the strongest features is the way the design creates great interior learning environments filled with daylight, and great classroom spaces. Sustainable features were used to create spaces that are really uplifting. The architect did a great job of integrating new buildings into a challenging existing architectural sequence. As far as entries, there are some visual appearing exterior facades that express the daylighting and express the shade and value to the overall project, and that translates to the interiors. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
