The new high school addition provides flexible spaces with more than one function. Moveable walls, reconfigurable furniture, shared faculty offices, and multi-functional spaces create a 21st-century learning environment in a smaller footprint.
Collaboration and coming together were a major focus in the arrangement of the educational spaces. The learning environments extend out of the classrooms and into the lobby and corridor providing a full complement of learning settings, establishing a student-centered learning environment.
How do we increase space utilization for modern learning when 60% of the existing 1922 high school spaces were underused?
Utilizing a design thinking process, BLDD worked with educators and the community to create conceptual spaces to solve the high school's existing problems. This led to a "hacked" environment, where students and faculty tested prototyped rooms to gather feedback for the most effective, solutions-based designs for the new space.
- 4 Science Rooms
- Expanded Administrative Areas
- 39,000 Square Foot Field House
- Weight Room & Locker Room
- Band Room
- Choral Room
With an already thriving program, the planning of this facility and its location needed to be tightly knit into other district programs, such as athletics and general education. A key consideration was also the ability to expand program offerings in the future, through enlarged facilities and features which could include on-site gardens, crops or additional livestock support.
Faced with outdated high school facilities, an extensive community engagement planning process identified and assisted in prioritizing needs; ensuring a successful plan.
Built in 1924, South Side Elementary is the oldest elementary facility in the Champaign School District. The original facility was designed during a time when children would walk to and from school, and aside from technological upgrades, few changes had been made to modernize the building since its original construction.