Middle Schools
So often middle school gets trapped between high school and elementary school as a parentheses and, as a consequence, these critical developmental years are undervalued. The Archdiocese of New York hired KWA to reinvent a turn-of-the-century Catholic school building on the west side of Manhattan to be dedicated to middle school education and to signal the renaissance of Catholic education for the middle school student more generally.
Background
Our research on middle schools delved into how their needs from outdoor play spaces to classrooms are markedly different from both elementary school and high school. But those needs are rarely focused on in design.
Design Challenge
Taking turn-of-the century buildings and opening them up to create large-scale spaces for new curriculum and the more independent circulation patterns that middle school demands can be difficult and expensive. It required extensive investigation and understanding of the early 1900’s construction.
Design Strategy
In order the retain the school’s enrollment, it was important that we complete construction without interrupting the school’s schedule. KWA’s use of Integrated Design Methods and work with individual trades from the beginning of a project facilitates the phasing, design and redesign required in order to fast-track these types of projects and keep up with changing budgets and schedules efficiently.
Impact
Having a school designed specifically for middle school students allows the students to have an education that truly meets their needs. In this case, it also allowed the school to expand their capacity by freeing up the main building to be dedicated exclusively to elementary school. The new building was able to offer music, theater and theater arts, as well as a middle school-specific spaces like a cafeteria designed to meet the social developmental level of the middle school student with an array of seating options shown to increase healthy eating.