Integrated Sustainable Design

By Guest Blogger Donald Pender, AIA, REFP

As school districts continue to look at new ways to engage students with a wide range of learning styles, one new model being considered is the Thematic High School. Career Technical Education is one example of a Thematic High School, but there are others as well. Thematic High Schools can consist of Career Technical Academies, Arts and Music Academies, Science and Technology Academies, College Prep Academies, or any number of targeted themes. There are specific differences between each of these, which can affect design decisions such as learning space requirements and characteristics, and furniture and equipment requirements. For example, an Art and Music Academy would have some very different spatial and equipment requirements than say a Science and Technology Academy.

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.

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.

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.