Master Plans
In 2013, The Partnership Schools, a trail blazing school management group, hired KWA to develop a strategic plan for managing and evaluating the high priority life safety and capital needs of the Catholic schools they would be overseeing. Over 3-5 years, they planned to invest $9 million in those facilities. As part of that work they wanted to signal to the community that the Partnership Schools program was having both an immediate and a longer-term impact on the schools.
Successful innovative projects should begin with careful planning and analysis so that the final project meets the school’s needs and can be maintained by the institution over the life of the building while allowing it to maintain its demanding schedule and budgetary goals. Our team carefully reviews a client’s existing facility to understand any current problems or concerns in terms of function, maintenance issues, and under-utilized space so that the institution can develop a plan that addresses them.
Background
Often it is hard for a client to know if the problems that they have are best solved with a change to their overall campus landscape design and/or buildings. We start by finding out what is causing them stress, whether or not they believe that the cause is about their facilities. Sometimes when we first visit an educational client they know only that they want to be able to offer more programs like foreign languages or have a STEM program and to them it might seem like a scheduling issue, though it may be a space issue. Other times their sense of their needs are more concrete — they want a new building and have a clear vision.
Design Challenge
While school administrators are incredibly busy running day-to-day operations and fundraising every chance they get, determining whether an issue is best solved by physical change to their building or campus can be a confusing process. Sometimes, through dialogue and careful listening, we figure out together how a building or landscape project might begin to solve many problems for the institution at many different levels; sometimes investment in the campus can even increase income.
Design Strategy
Often the best solution to maximize their budget and time involves understanding a myriad of things about the institution including fundraising capacity, physical resources, staffing, community, and mission. Because of KWA’s experience with both architecture and landscape we are able to use a range of levels of master planning to holistically look at a client's existing facility and campus and their goals to help them determine the best solution to achieve their intentions.
Impact
Even a quick “master plan” greatly improves a project. It helps a client see new avenues for future growth and feel confident that this first step — no matter how small or large — that they want to take fits within a larger growth plan. It also helps with fundraising by showing potential donors that the client has thought through the growth of their facility and campus. KWA’s Integrated Design Process gives the client an architectural vision that is grounded in the realities of construction and future costs as well as options that are buildable.