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Published each spring by the National School Boards Association's flagship
magazine American School Board Journal,
Learning By Design showcases exemplary school design projects
from across the continent. Each print edition
presents the best in ...
• new construction
• renovations/additions/restorations
• significant projects in progress
• interior designs
• modular buildings and special-purpose facilities ...
for K-12 public, private, or parochial schools; prekindergarten schools;
and community colleges in the United States and Canada.
Project descriptions, photographs, key data, and contact information
for each entry provide a ready reference for school leaders who are
planning to build new schools or renovate existing facilities. Articles
by accepted experts in the field provide practical advice on construction
and in-depth coverage of design trends.
Learning By Design online provides PDF files for each of this
year's construction projects, plus region-by-region listings of experienced
school architects and the complete text of feature articles from our
print edition. Exclusively online, the Resources
page links users to regularly updated news and information, practical
articles, and useful Internet sites.
Introduction
The more we learn about how people learn, the more we understand the
importance of the learning environment. With a good teacher, a student
can learn anywhere. But achievement is more certain in places that support
and enhance learning — places like the schools described in these
pages. From brand new elementary schools to renovated high schools and
more, these outstanding examples of school design illustrate the powerful
impact a school building can have not only on its students, but on the
surrounding neighborhood and, indeed, the entire community.
School buildings like this don't just happen, of course — they're
carefully planned, designed, and constructed according to sound and
enduring principles of form and function.
In October 1998, a National Symposium on School Design was convened
in Washington, D.C., by then-Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary
of Education Richard W. Riley, and the White House Millennium Council.
The educators, facilities planners, architects, and others who took
part in that historic meeting drafted a set of six planning and design
principles for learning environments that have been widely endorsed
in the last two and a half years. These principles are described at
length, and illustrated by example, in an important new online resource
from the U.S. Department
of Education: Schools as Centers of Community: A Citizen's Guide
for Planning and Design.
The principles assert that, to meet the nation's needs for the 21st
century, we must design learning environments that:
1. Enhance teaching and learning and accommodate the needs of all
learners.
2. Serve as centers of the community.
3. Result from a planning/design process involving all stakeholders.
4. Provide for health, safety, and security.
5. Make effective use of all available resources.
6. Allow for flexibility and adaptability to changing needs.
"The six design principles themselves are relatively simple and
straightforward," says the Education Department report. "However,
together they call for bold action to transform America's schools."
Such a transformation is sorely needed. Most of today's public school
buildings were designed to sustain an outdated model of education, the
report maintains. But current research calls for less large-group, teacher-centered
instruction and more student involvement in active, participatory learning.
Moreover, according to a 2000 report from the National Education Association,
an estimated $322 billion is needed to build, repair, and modernize
public schools — more than double the U.S. General Accounting Office
1996 estimate for bringing existing schools into overall good condition.
And to the challenge of modernizing outdated school facilities, add
the challenge of building thousands of new schools to serve the record
numbers of young people crowding into classrooms all over America.
Luckily, there are many talented and creative school planners and architects
to help meet this dual challenge. You'll find them here and in the print
edition of Learning By Design. We hope the ideas and solutions
presented here will prove helpful as you plan learning environments
for your students.
 
The 2001 Review Panel
C. William Day, Chair
KBD Planning Group
Bloomington, Ind.
John D. Johnson III
Alexandria City Public Schools
Alexandria, Va.
Jo Anne Murray, AIA
Murray and Associates Architects
Glen Echo, Md.
© 2001, NSBA
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