Integrated Sustainable Design

By LPA Blogger Kate Mraw

We hope you’ve been enjoying our posts about the latest in k-12 learning environments, research based design, and the very special charter high school in schematic design for the Orangewood Children’s Foundation. Today, we’ll tie all of these themes together, with further insights about classroom design and how it can keep foster teens and at-risk youth engaged in their learning experience. Remember, The Academy is a 320-student charter high that the Orangewood Children’s Foundation has brought LPA on board to design and develop; its goal is to groom its students with the skills and confidence they’ll need to break the cycle of abuse, and live healthy, productive lives.

Last week, we shared with you our ambitious mission: to create sustainable places and spaces that truly enrich the lives of those who use them. As we strive to make this mission a reality through more supportive, thoughtful, and informed design solutions it’s exciting to see this play out, in a real world example. As learning becomes more active, it is our job, as K-12 school designers, to discover how classroom environments can better support learning activities. In the following example, you’ll see how engaging learning environments can not only produce successful learners, but change lives as well.

By LPA Bloggers Suzanne Schechtman and Jill Kramer

It’s written on our business cards, inscribed on the front doors of our offices, and, most importantly, ingrained in the thought process that goes into every project we deliver: our goal at LPA is to create sustainable places and spaces that truly enrich the lives of those who use them.

By Guest Blogger Julie Zhang, Professional Studio Intern

I can’t believe it’s already week nine out of my 10-week architectural internship. The days pass like a bullet train, with all of the excitement and bewilderment that come along with it. I find myself eager to get to work in the morning, eager to finish the project that I’m working on, and eager to see it grow. I anticipate the lessons that await me and the things I’ll learn; I am often surprised. I expected to improve on skills in modeling, technical drawing, and blueprint reading. What I didn’t expect, was the exposure to all sectors of the building design process.

For those not in the K-12 school design world, you may have missed one of the year’s most informative school housing conferences. Last week, hundreds of districts met together in Sacramento, CA, to discuss the condition of California’s budget, the future of funding for schools, and anything and everything about 21^st Century Learning Environments. Hosted by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (C.A.S.H.), the 2012 conference was educational and insightful.

It’s been a little under a year since we relocated our San Diego LPA office, to a larger, cooler, more inspired facility for our architects, planners, interior designers, engineers, and landscape architects, working out of the city. Housed at the center of the historic Wonder Bread building—established, circa 1924—the studio takes a “do-less” approach, leaving brick walls, wood flooring, and other parts of the structure exposed. A two-story, 5,000-square foot office, the space features a sliding glass door and operable windows on the second floor. On most days LPA employees take advantage of natural ventilation and San Diego’s mild climate to keep the office comfortable.

Last year, we began talking about the many planning and design strategies that can be used to green a new or existing K-12 school. I’ve especially enjoyed sharing this series with you, Sustainable Planning and Design in K-12 Schools, because more than 55 million students spend their time in school facilities each year and between 2010 and 2012, we will see nearly $90 billion in K-12 school construction. It’s important that we get this right, and an easy place to start, is “Materials and Resources.”

In our first post about curriculum and construction in K-12 schools, we highlighted the idea that this pairing is really about a thoughtful blend of old and new ideas. Technology, hands on experiences and relevant core values all play a vital role. My last piece was focused on concepts that cross grade and subject boundaries, as with the tessellations—repeated, interlocking shapes that are found in nature, science and math—at Beverly Hills High School (BHHS). Today, we’ll focus more on hands on experiences.

As we’ve done for the past two years, it’s time for our annual year end highlights piece, reviewing the best in architecture and engineering in 2011. 

By Guest Blogger Jomay Liao

It takes a well-orchestrated process and communication to create and develop a vision, get support for that vision, adjust that vision, and finally, implement the vision. As I added to a recent forum thread, in a course I’m taking with the Council of Educational Facility Planners (CEFPI), my thoughts and ideas about change and K-12 school environments were solidified, and condensed so that you could enjoy them here.