Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus, Academic Design and Construction Estimation

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Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus, Academic Design and Construction Estimation
Progress continues on the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus. Learn about the schematic intent behind the academic design and how cost estimations play a part of the architectural process.

Academic Design and Construction Update

Since the October 19th “schematic intent” event was cancelled, below is a brief snapshot from that presentation.

Progress continues on plans for Cuyahoga Falls’ new 6-12 school and stadium complex. The Cuyahoga Falls City School District, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), Hammond Construction and ThenDesign Architecture have been engaging with the school district administration and staff, board members, community members, city officials, and various specialists through meetings, engagement sessions, surveys, and presentations. Each of these parties have helped to shape the design of the new school and are committed to creating a facility that provides strong, innovative programs for students, safe and secure learning environments, and a gathering place for the Cuyahoga Falls community.

The design process involves three major phases: schematic design, design development and producing the final construction documents. Schematic design involves the overall look of the building, preliminary floor plans and the layout of the building on the site. The design development phase includes refining the look, selecting materials, and designing the building systems.

A Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus Planning Committee Meeting

Site Plan

The site is a 45 acre plot in Cuyahoga Falls, where the Bolich Middle school, the old Newberry Elementary, LayBourne Field and Newberry Park are located. Bolich Middle School (opened in 1954) was the first junior high school in the Cuyahoga Falls City School System. It became a middle school in 1983 and since then has housed grades 6, 7 and 8. Newberry Elementary School, which was originally built in 1956, is a single-story building that has been leased by Summit Christian School and Summit County Educational Services since 2005.

Bolich, Newberry and Laybourne Field are scheduled to be demolished with the new 6-12 building planned to occupy the site, along with a Performing Art Center and new athletic facility. During Educational Visioning, the community identified goals for the site, which included maintaining some of Newberry Park and allowing the new building to have a visual presence on Portage Trail, with athletic facilities being located towards Newberry Park. These ideas are being incorporated into the design.

The Existing Site for the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus
The Existing Site for the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus
The District does a great job with their facilities, but this will be the "missing piece" to our city. Everything will be complete because the campus environment is perfect."
Don Walters
Mayor of Cuyahoga Falls

The Bond Process and Educational Visioning

While design officially started in April after an Educational Visioning Session, this project stretches back to the Spring of 2015, when the school District filed a master plan with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission. In November 2019, the Cuyahoga Falls community approved a Bond issue that provided $80.6 million of the project, while the OFCC will contribute $33.2 million to the overall project. State funding was released to the district in May 2021, another large milestone that allowed all the team members to officially begin design.

The new facility is scheduled to open for the 2025-2026 school year. The Mayor of Cuyahoga Falls, Don Walters has called this project, “the missing link of the city,” in an interview earlier this year. The much-anticipated project will offer residents and students a modern environment and expanded educational opportunities.

Cuyahoga Falls City School District Educational Visioning

Architectural Design is an Iterative Process

Starting in April 2021, ThenDesign Architecture, the Cuyahoga Falls City School District and the OFCC have been developing schematics for the new structure. Throughout the spring and summer, a variety of engagements with community groups and educators have taken place. This has allowed the team to receive feedback from community members, teachers, and administrators that are being actively incorporated into the design process.

Architectural design is an iterative process. It involves generating many potential solutions, then quickly refining and testing the best ones, while dismissing those that don’t satisfy projects goals. For those working in the creative fields, this is a familiar process, and the development of the new school is no different. A variety of schemes have been developed, tested, and refined to best understand if they meet the needs of the district, while staying within budget.

We look forward to sharing more specifics on the 6-12 campus in the coming months.

Development for "The Whole Child"

Developing the "Whole Child"
Developing the "Whole Child"

Educational Foundation of Building

A great deal of time has been spent on the inner workings of the building with the schematic intent for the academic design being outlined. Classrooms follow a “pod” structure, with various grades broken down into small communities known as “neighborhoods,” “villages” and “communities.” Each of these differently sized pods represents a self-contained learning environment where students will spend most of their time. “Neighborhoods” are the smallest and contain classrooms, an open collaborative space and small group room. “Villages” and “communities” are larger but contain a similar academic design.

Educational research indicates that each person can maintain 150 meaningful social relationships at once. Dividing spaces in this way allow students to remain with a core group of their peers. This diminishes the overall building scale, while allowing all grades to efficiently share the common areas such as student dining, the gymnasiums, and performing arts center.

Examples of the neighborhoods include the three-6th grade learning “neighborhoods.” These small educational pods are separated from the middle and high school. This way sixth graders enjoy a welcoming and safe environment as they navigate the crucial transition out of elementary school. This new pod environment allows them to acclimate naturally to the new educational environment, while eliminating another jarring facility transition in future grades.

Similarly, the middle school “villages” are separated from the high school pods and the middle and high school have separate entries. It is best to think of this complex as two separate buildings under one roof. While there are opportunities for to share common spaces, students will remain separated in their academic areas but still benefit from pooled educational resources in a single building. This is the direction that many school districts are moving in and a lot of research demonstrates its effectiveness in public education.

A Design Team Meeting

The Role of a Construction Manager

As we move through the phases of design, Hammond will provide cost estimate analyses, ensuring the design stays within the financial commitment made to the community.  With the current economic climate, the construction industry is facing several supply chain issues, labor shortages and inflationary concerns. Our team is currently working to identify all potential risks to the project, and will develop mitigation strategies into the final plan.

You will soon see activity on the site, starting with abatement of the Newberry School. In the next few months, the district will be hosting an online auction to sell various loose items in the building. The abatement of the building will follow, which includes the removal of specific materials prior to demolition of the facility.  Once abatement is complete, the building services will be discontinued, and the school will be locked and secured through the remainder of the winter months. Final demolition of the building will be a part of the full campus site development work to be completed next year.

When will my child be in the new building?

Next Steps:

We look forward to releasing more information on the building as details around the floor plan, interior spaces and exterior renderings are developed. In the meantime, if you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to: cf_nichols@cftigers.org.

Download the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus - October Update​

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus – Summer Design Update

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Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus: Summer Design Update
Over the summer, the design team continued to hit milestones in the design of the new Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus. A variety of recent engagements have allowed the team to develop initial “schematic design drawings” that will be further developed in the months ahead.

Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus: Summer Design Update

Since Educational Visioning in late April, the Cuyahoga Falls City School District, construction professionals, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission and the design team at ThenDesign Architecture (TDA) have been working to develop solutions for the new 6-12 Campus. After initial engagements with the community and educators, the team has been busy cataloging and incorporating feedback into strategies for the new school. Now, after hundreds of hours of meetings, conversations and collaboration over the summer, they are hard at work integrating that input from stakeholders and drafting plans for the new facility.

District officials met with designers from ThenDesign Architecture at their office in Willoughby Ohio, for design meetings.

Important Aspects of Design from Educational Visioning

The Educational Visioning session in early May was critical to lay the “conceptual foundation” for the new school. At this event, around 100 attendees from the community, district and the design fields outlined key design points for this new “hub of the community.” These findings were outlined in the Educational Visioning Report, released in June.

A Recap of Those Key Points:

    • Flexible, collaborative spaces designed to promote independent student education.
    • Traffic circulation needs to be improved at the high school and other locations.
    • Identify opportunities where spaces can be shared between the middle and high school students.
    • Integrate outdoor learning areas and have collaborative spaces designed with an abundance of natural light.
    • Building entrances on site should be easily identifiable and promote community access.
    • Integrate athletic facilities with the building to maximize usage.

An Education Visioning Session in Cuyahoga Falls in early May.

"We had a great cross section of our community at Educational Visioning. We will have a building that provides the absolute best opportunities for our students."
Dr. Todd M. Nichols
Superintendent/CEO

Partnership with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission

To build the school, the district is funding $80.6 million of the project, which was generated from a 2019, community approved 9.83-mill tax levy, that included a 5.33-mill, 36-year bond issue. Additionally, the district is participating in the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), Classroom Facilities Assistance Program (CFAP). By participating in this program, the OFCC will provide an additional $32.8 million in project costs and participate in building’s design.

To qualify for this assistance, designers will follow guidelines from the OFCC that ensure the educational needs of the building are met. These guidelines come in the form of a “Program of Requirements” (POR). This is essentially a checklist of spaces and square footage that must be met inside the building.

This way, the OFCC ensures key academic spaces are included, sustainability goals are met, along with a variety of other priorities.

There are several standard POR options to choose from. One is the “Traditional POR.” This is the most rigid in terms of how square footage can be allocated, another is a “Partial Order Reduction POR,” this allows some flexibility in spatial requirements in how square footage is allocated. Another type is the “High Performance Learning Environment (HPLE) POR,” which is the most flexible design plan.

For the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus, the district is working off the High-Performance Learning Environment POR, based on Educational Visioning and academic feedback. Doing so, ensures maximum spatial flexibility with how spaces are arranged to deliver a collaborative and modern curriculum. Using this POR allows designers more freedom to program collaborative, student-centered spaces alongside core academic areas.

Designers at ThenDesign Architecture incorporated feedback from the Educational Visioning Session into the new facility.
"We heard how welcoming and central the school is to parents, students and residents. So we really are designing it to become a "hub of the community."
Abby Rainieri
Educational Design Lead

Sustainability Features and the Eco-Charette

Each project the OFCC funds is required to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USBGC) LEED Silver rating. The USBGC oversees Leadership in Energy Efficient Design (LEED) standards which is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. LEED provides a working framework for healthy, efficient, and cost-saving buildings.

Within the program, there are several tiers that a building can achieve by employing eco-friendly features. The four tiers are: certified, silver, gold and platinum and are determined by a structure’s ability to achieve points on LEED project scorecard. This scorecard is designed to measure how the building responds to its location and transportation options, sustainable site features, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resource usage, indoor environmental quality, and other innovative design elements.

To determine the 6-12 Campus’ desired environmental features, the design team met early in the summer for an “eco-charrette.” Here the team outlined a strategy to meet the LEED Silver Rating.

Project Manager, Scott Alleman describes the eco-charrette, “It’s a work session where the district, educators, designers and construction professionals set our goals for the environmental and sustainability items we want to pursue.”

Specific features could range from adjusting the buildings orientation and windows to take advantage of daylight, minimizing windows on southern exposures to prevent excessive heat intake, better insulation in the building envelope, improved exterior lights to limit light pollution and rainwater management systems.

Alleman continues, “Sustainability is important to school projects. When you have a 350,000 sf building, we want to make sure it’s designed to be as thermally optimal as possible while making sure mechanical systems are laid out and operating as efficiently as possible.”

For Cheryl Fisher, an educational planner on the project, achieving this rating is a balance between managing costs and the districts goals for sustainability.

“I’m impressed at the level of detail that goes into this part of planning,” Fisher notes, “the manual guiding these scorecards are 600+ pages. We want to achieve the district’s goals for sustainability, while scoring points that make the most budgetary sense. It’s a challenge.”

Engaging early on sustainability goals affects the building’s early design.

Cheryl continues, “We want to gain all the points we can while protecting the overall budget. To achieve all the points, would impact the budget greatly. If we decided to add underground parking, covered by greenspace, that would significantly impact both the design and budget. We need to be realistic about what we can achieve.”

An eco-charrette was hosted in the Cuyahoga Falls High School to set sustainability goals for the new 6-12 Campus.
"Sustainability is important to school projects. When you have a 350,000sf building, it needs to be designed to operate as efficiently as possible."
Scott Alleman
Architect

Visual Preference Exercise

Early in the summer, the design team held a “Visual Preference Exercise” to receive input from the community on how they think the exterior of the building should look. During this engagement, over 800 community members provided feedback on various exterior styles for the building.

Many participants expressed a strong affinity to various buildings in Cuyahoga Falls. Notably, the Natatorium and downtown Clock Tower were beloved architectural examples.

The design team found the community preferred a mix of exterior architectural styles, while identifying the importance of defined, “contemporary entrances” while maintaining some characteristics of Cuyahoga Falls’ more “traditional” architecture.

A "Visual Preference Exercise" was held in the Cuyahoga Falls High School Auditorium to gather input on the exterior design of the new facility.

"I love this city, I moved back to the Falls recently and can't wait to see this project built. The buildings down on Portage Trail are my favorite, they have so much character."
Cuyahoga Falls Resident
Visual Preference Exercise

Building Tours and Educator Engagement

Also over the summer, the district and representatives from the construction leadership team had the opportunity to tour schools in neighboring communities that have transitioned to new, more collaborative, student centered facilities. Facilities toured included schools in the Willoughby/Eastlake District and North Ridgeville City Schools among others. They walked through collaborative spaces, classrooms, and student dining areas, while hearing educators’ overall impressions of them in use.

Visiting these facilities provide valuable insight into the spatial layout of 21st century educational environments and how other districts planned and executed their building projects.

District officials and TDA designers toured educational facilities in the Willoughby-Eastlake City School District.

The design team facilitated a series of engagements with educators from the Cuyahoga Falls High School, Bolich and Roberts Middle Schools designed to gather input on the new school’s interior layout. Teachers discussed their current classrooms, assessed storage needs, and adjacencies between departments. These sessions allowed staff to explain key points for inclusion in the new building and helped the district understand better how curriculum can be advanced in the new facility.

Some key findings included:

    • A desire to collaborate more among educators. There was excitement over consolidating into one facility that would make collaboration between educators easier.
    • An interest in interconnected rooms that could make co-teaching a possibility for classes in the same department.
    • Using the architecture itself as a teaching tool by exposing building systems in limited areas for students to examine and explore.
    • Including flexible spaces outside the classroom so students could divide up for a variety of activities in small groups.
    • Connecting some science classrooms to exterior space for outdoor experiments. Possibly integrating exterior courtyards into the building for natural lighting and access.
    • More options for equipment storage and space for some long-term science experiments.
    • Organizing the new facility by department, instead of classrooms spread out across the school.
    • Flexible spaces big enough to host 2 different classes to interact and have mixed assignments.

Educators were engaged early in the process to better understand how they could use space in the new facility.

Schematic Design Continues

With Educational Visioning, OFCC input, educator feedback, visual preferencing, and sustainable features outlined, this has allowed designers to put “pencils to paper” and develop a building layout. This initial set of conceptual designs are known as “schematic drawings” and helps the process in a variety of ways.

First, these drawings detail how the “Program of Requirements” (or list of necessary spaces and square footage) is applied in the new school. This milestone took hours of collaboration among the Cuyahoga Falls City School District, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, ThenDesign Architecture and Hammond Construction. Areas of the building such as classrooms, collaborative spaces, athletics, student dining and other keys spaces are all incorporated into the design.

Secondly, these drawings allow the team to begin exploring building materials, colors, and textures for the final structure. This submission also shows how feedback from the early informational gathering process has been applied. This will continue to be refined and adjusted with further conversation.

Thirdly, the initial drawings allow the team to better examine building costs and validate budget decisions. While “rule of thumb” costs have been applied throughout the process, these drawings can be analyzed by the construction manager to provide more accurate feedback on material availability and project cost breakdowns.

The schematic drawings will continue to be developed as the design project continues.

Countless hours have been spent developing schematic drawings for the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus.
"This building is a reflection of the community, the district's educational goals and input from many other stakeholders. We are excited to present what we have developed."
Scott Alleman
Architect

Next Steps in the Design Process

With this information gathered and schematic designs in development, the team looks forward to providing an early glimpse of the conceptual design of the building in late October. These designs will be refined in the months ahead and this initial release will give community members a glimpse into the direction of the design.

Your input on this project matters! Feel free to reach out to Dr. Todd Nichols, cf_nichols@cftigers.org, with any questions or comments on the design’s progression. Watch the Cuyahoga Falls City School District channels for details on when the schematic designs will be released. Currently this is planned as both an in-person and online event on October 19th. We look forward to seeing you there!

Download the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus Design Summer Update​ Brochure

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Recent Posts:

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

Cuyahoga Falls – Designing for the Future with the New 6-12 Campus

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Educational Visioning – Designing for the Future with the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus
On April 29th 2021, ThenDesign Architecture held an "Educational Visioning" session at the Summit Educational Service Center in Cuyahoga Falls for the school district’s new 6-12 campus. Topics of conversation included how core academics will be enhanced, the integration of the middle and high school, and how the building can serve as “the hub of the community” in Cuyahoga Falls.

Educational Visioning for Cuyahoga Falls, New 6-12 Facility

On April 29th 2021, ThenDesign Architecture held an “Educational Visioning” session at the Summit Educational Service Center in Cuyahoga Falls to begin designing for the future of the district’s new 6-12 campus. This day-long event focused on understanding the current challenges with the existing facilities and identifying opportunities the new building will bring. With over 80 in attendance, members of the community, students, administrators, along with architecture and construction professionals provided input on the project. Attendees were encouraged to imagine how the new facility will improve education across the district. Topics of conversation included how core academics will be enhanced, the integration of the middle and high school, and how the building can serve as “the hub of the community” in Cuyahoga Falls.

Those who attended brainstormed ideas, defined priorities, and presented educational goals that will be used during the development of the new building.

See the inside view of the Educational Visioning Session.

Our vision is Cuyahoga Falls City Schools, the "hub of our community." We take this seriously. We want this to be a community facility, where everyone feels comfortable engaging in all the resources that this building will have."
Karen Schofield
Board of Education President

Educational Visioning, Designing for the Future

Superintendent Todd Nichols commented: “Educational Visioning really sets the stage for us to dream big. We have the opportunity to drop all of those old, antiquated paradigms of what education was, and think about what it can be. Then we will design a building around that vision. That’s the proper process and what has led us up to this point.”

The construction site is located where the Bolich and Newberry schools currently sit. This new 370,000 sf building will include a performing arts center, sports stadium and community focused spaces.

The new school will enable new educational programs and opportunities to better serve middle and high school students in the district.

“We know that we have good teachers, and we know we have kids who love to learn,” commented Board of Education President Karen Schofield, “we know that with the combination of those two things in a new facility with appropriate ventilation, air cooling systems, natural light and flexible spaces, only great things will happen.”
"Our mission statement is "Every student, every day, every opportunity." This building fulfills that promise to our community. So for our students, whatever you want to be, whatever you want to do, this facility will help you get there."
Dr. Todd M. Nichols
Superintendent/CEO

Activities Designed to Set Educational Goals

Educational Visioning Sessions are built around the idea that through collaboration, discussion and exploration, attendees can set educational and architectural goals that can be achieved in the new facility. Attendees are assembled into small groups that include students, educators, parents, community members and administrators. They collaborate on three main activities which facilitate discussion. The three activities include, “Defining Success and Challenges,” “Educational Design Solutions,” and “Putting it all Together.”

The design team then analyzes the information and draws conclusions that are worked into the final architectural solution.

Exercise 1: Defining the Success and Challenges

For Cuyahoga Falls, designing for the future includes considering the success and challenges in the district. The first activity is designed to understand the current state of existing facilities. Small groups discuss these and then share their discussion with the whole audience.

The most widely reported successes were the dedicated teaching staff who are resourceful with their current facilities. Other success included expanded educational programs like Career Tech, Industrial Arts along with greenspace/outdoor learning areas and the strong sense of Black Tiger pride among the schools.

Challenges from within the district included the limited flexibility to capitalize on different learning environments, small classroom sizes and a general lack of storage. Poor site circulation which caused traffic congestion, a lack of parking, limited ADA accessibility, concerns with safety and security due to multiple building entrances and poor climate control were other primary challenges.

Results from Exercise 1:

Successes in the District

  • Programming opportunities including Career Tech, Industrial Arts and Extracurricular classes
  • Committed and dedicated staff with a focus on education
  • Abundance of Black Tiger Pride
  • Greenspace, outdoor learning areas and playgrounds
  • The High School offers character and nostalgia
  • Large, communal spaces for gatherings including the Auditorium and Gymnasium
  • Offering of 1 : 1 Chromebooks
  • Music, Band and Performing Arts programs
  • Supportive and involved community

Challenges in the District

  • The large overall footprint of the High School can be difficult to navigate and creates long walking distances throughout the building
  • Safety and security concerns with having multiple entrances to the building
  • Poor site circulation causing traffic congestion
  • Lack of parking
  • Small classroom sizes
  • Lack of community and meeting spaces
  • Limitations with technology and WiFi
  • Lack of student and staff storage
  • Limited flexibility within the building to support different learning environments
  • Ventilation, as well as heating and cooling of buildings
  • Lack of ADA accessibility
  • Upkeep due to aging facilities
We specifically designed this building for the community's needs. So they can be excited that they're going own this building and they can be proud of it.
Scott Alleman
Project Manager

Exercise 2: Educational Design Solutions

Every school district has unique community and student needs. Each building design project is an opportunity to be designing for the future and to provide an original solution to those unique needs. During the early phases of planning, it is important that key spaces and their potential future uses are identified early in the design process.

The second visioning activity presents a series of academic categories placed around the room. Attendees write how they envision how these programs could implemented in the new building. Hundreds of comments are gathered, compiled and analyzed to find similarities and outliers. These ideas are used to drive the initial layouts during the schematic design phase.

Project manager, Scott Alleman, commented: “The educational visioning session is where we’re setting our educational goals [and] designing our building around our educational goals. That’s what today is all about.”

Results from Exercise 2:

Administration

A multipurpose, inviting space with a centralized location; private space for meetings/needs; invest in new technology; staggered start times; sensory/cool down room for students; close proximity of related services to support collaboration

Career Technical

Public spaces supported by local businesses; community access; exposure to program in Elementary and Middle School; prominent location; partnership with local businesses that promote students for the workforce.

Clubs, Organizations and Partnerships

Partnering with local businesses; designated space to meet where it is flexible for multi-uses; More club offerings for all 3 levels including after school; dedicated space/post for the swim team

Core Academics

Flexible, collaborative spaces to support various learning styles; sliding glass walls for small and large group gatherings; learning pods; dry erase boards and walls; technology; outdoor learning opportunities; writing studio; dedicated teacher space

Core + More

Sensory rooms; more gifted classes; independent living pods; booths for group work; functional life skills lab; area to provide medical services; flexible seating and collaboration spaces

Food Service

Cafe style with various seating options including outdoor; integration with gardens/other academic subjects; community access; student run

Media Center

Designated media space that can serve for multi-uses, while fostering collaboration and independent studying/reading; natural light; accessible to all students; access to E-books

Music / Performing Arts

Flexible spaces for rehearsal and classrooms; more storage; more instruments; outdoor performing space; restrooms, concessions and ticket booth

Physical Education / Athletics

Fieldhouse with batting cages, indoor golf, wrestling room, locker rooms; multipurpose gym spaces; soundproof dividers; pool; indoor track; central location for all sports

Science / STEAM

Lab spaces that promote inquiry; maker spaces for inventing and collaborating; storage for all items; incorporate labs into Middle School; outdoor learning; inclusion of robotics and physics

Visual Arts

Gallery and display space; sinks; storage; dedicated photography space; natural light; ventilation; open floor plans; teacher collaboration opportunities
When this new school is done, I think it will provide more learning opportunities. The teachers will be able to do more, with more space.
Cooper
Cuyahoga Falls Student

Exercise 3: Putting It All Together

The final exercise for the day is the most challenging. Participants are tasked with using paper cut outs to explore spatial relationships on a scaled site plan.

Since there is no “correct” answer, participants work as a group to plot out where they feel the spaces should be. They are forced to grapple with how to best route traffic, where to place entrances, how the athletic facilities and performing arts spaces connect to the school and how the surrounding environment is impacted.

“This project will be transformational. The facility itself will be wrapped around the educational vision,” commented Dr. Todd Nichols, Cuyahoga Falls Superintendent said. “It is as the mayor described the “missing link” within Cuyahoga Falls. We have so much work on Front Street and Portage Crossings and State Road. This piece brings all that together.”

While each of the 10 groups had unique approaches to the building layout, there were many similarities in design. Additionally, there were several unique solutions based on the group’s dynamics. All these served to help Cuyahoga Falls begin designing for the future of their new facility.

Results from Exercise 3:

Common Themes

  • Shared common space for the middle and high school students including the media center, food service and student dining
  • A 2-story, 6-12 building
  • Career technical education classes visible along 13th Street to provide convenient, public access for parking and promotion of the programs available
  • Preservation of Newberry Park to maintain the greenery and utilize for outdoor learning opportunities including greenhouse, gardens and wellness
  • Adjacencies of core academic spaces including:
    • Performing Arts Center, music and theater
    • Student dining, Food service and Family and consumer science
  • Stadium situated on the North of the site alongside Newberry Park; utilization of existing hill for walkway, seating and/or press box
  • Addition of several parking lots to accommodate stadium, staff, students and visitors
    • Parking lot primarily on existing Bolich Middle School site
  • Special education integrated throughout core academics

Unique Ideas

  • Building separation of the middle school and high school with a central courtyard or gym
  • Prominent main entrance to the High School and Performing Arts Center along Portage Trail for visibility to pedestrian and car traffic
  • One main entrance and exit to support better site circulation
    • Currently there are too many entrances at the high school which creates congestion
  • Create a grand entrance for a new competition gym, built on a gradient
  • Separation between the 6th grade students and 7th-8th students to support developmental transitions to high school.
    • 6th grade students located on the 1st floor with Administration
    • 7th-8th grade students located upstairs on 2nd floor
  • Create separate gyms for the middle school and high school students
  • Addition of athletic fields on site including baseball, tennis courts
"If I was a student, and saw my whole community coming together to build a building to better educate me, it would make me want to do better every day."
Anthony Gomez
Vice President of the Board of Education

Key Takeaways

The Educational Visioning session for the Cuyahoga Falls City School District resulted in an insightful day and served as a kickoff to begin designing for the future of the new 6-12 facility. The cross section of representatives across the district and community provided a forum to recognize successes, share ideas, and imagine how the new facility will positively impact students in Cuyahoga Falls.

The design team will use information collected throughout this session along with other engagement opportunities to serve as the foundation for the design of the new 6-12 school.

Designing for the Future - Priorities from Visioning:

  • There is a major need for flexible, collaborative spaces to support the delivery of education and to promote independent student learning.
  • Traffic circulation needs to be improved. The team should explore ways to separate bus and vehicle traffic.
  • The new school should continue to promote Black Tiger Pride among students and faculty.
  • Find opportunities for shared and separate spaces for middle and high school students.
  • Integrating outdoor learning areas and natural daylighting is key.
  • The new building should be displayed prominently on the site and the spatial relationships inside should promote community access.
Click to Access a Printable Version of the Educational Visioning Report
Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.
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Perry Local Schools – Four New Elementary Schools

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Perry Local Schools - Four New Elementary Schools
Driven by the goal to provide the best educational facilities for their young students, Perry Local Schools is in the midst of an ambitious task; redesigning and constructing all four elementary schools in their district. While it has proven challenging to collaborate on a large-scale design process during a pandemic, the efforts of the Building Focus Group, along with many other community volunteers and educators has provided valuable insight to allow these new schools to serve Perry Local Schools for decades to come.

Perry Local Schools - Four New Elementary Schools

Driven by the goal to provide the best educational facilities for their young students, Perry Local Schools is in the midst of an ambitious task; the design and construction of four new elementary schools across the district. After passing a bond issue in early 2020, the district partnered with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission and ThenDesign Architecture to fund and design these new buildings. Addressing the challenge of aging infrastructure in their current facilities, these new schools will provide a better organized school layout, community focused spaces, new technology, and a more comfortable and collaborative environment for students to learn in. Now well into the design process, each school showcases a unique characteristic of the Perry Massillon community, with the buildings slated to be completed by the fall of 2023.

While it has proven challenging to collaborate on a large-scale design process during a pandemic, the efforts of the Building Focus Group, along with many other community volunteers and educators has provided valuable insight to allow these new schools to serve Perry Local Schools for decades to come.

Students from Perry Local Schools speak about the impact good educational facilities can make on learning.

A Challenging Environment

The district currently has five elementary schools, (Genoa, Knapp, PJ Lohr, Watson and Whipple Elementary) each of which serves around 500 students and has been in the community for decades–most having been constructed in the late 1950’s and early 1960s. While well cared for, they are reaching the end of their lifecycle. Ongoing maintenance and repair costs for each building have begun to exceed the costs of new facilities. When this is paired with difficult accessibility for most of the buildings, inadequate parking and bus circulation space, along with dated air handling and electrical systems, it is clear new structures would better serve Perry students.

Additionally, as education has evolved over the decades, spaces within the original buildings became more fragmented and the historic layout of the existing schools no longer worked with the curriculum or met students’ needs. As an example, “special education” and student wellness within most elementary schools has become very important but in historic schools, there is usually very little space allocated for this crucial need.

The technological and organizational limitations of historic schools necessitated new buildings and presented the unique opportunity to reorganize educational spaces and create a modern educational environment for young students.

Whipple Elementary School
P.J. Lohr Elementary School
Knapp Elementary School
Watson Elementary School
"We’ve learned relationships are important,” the superintendent said. “In smaller schools it is easier to build a relationship with a young person. You have to build interpersonal positive relationships with kids for them to learn and grow."
Scott Beatty
Superintendent of Perry Local Schools

The Perry Local Schools: Building Focus Group

A tremendous amount of work went into the developing designs for the four new elementary buildings. To specifically tailor these buildings to suit educators, the district established a “Building Focus Group.” This special group was composed of principals, teachers, special education administrators and representatives from food services, music, and athletics across the four existing schools. This group of 25-30 members met weekly for almost 5 months, to discuss how the new buildings would function. Ryan Schmit, Project Manager for the project commented: “We would meet with the Building Focus Group for an hour or two and go through plan concepts, building feature concepts, talk through pros and cons and then afterwards issue a homework task each week.” He continues, “Each representative would take that assignment back to their groups, then send us additional information. We shaped the buildings according to educators needs. These groups really drove the design of the buildings.”

The involvement from the administration, educators and various community members ensured the design for each school was “staff driven” and was arranged to meet the educational scheme of the district.

The “Building Focus Group,” represented dozens of educators and hundreds of hours of shared design process that was crucial to each new facility.

Concept Imagery for the four new elementary schools:

P.J. Lohr Whipple Knapp Watson

Perry Local Schools - Concept Imagery for the four elementary schools in the district

Unique Identities in the Perry Community

Early in the design process, a “brainstorming committee” was tasked with identifying unique characteristics of the Perry community that could inform the elevations of the buildings. This committee was made of longtime residents, members of the historical society, young people, and alumni of Perry Local Schools. Through many meetings and long conversations, the group identified several qualities of the community which could be reflected in the overall exterior aesthetics of the buildings.

The team identifies four key characteristics. These included Perry’s strong rural and agricultural roots, the patriotic undercurrent in the community, their strong presence in the steel manufacturing industry and the district’s emphasis on performing arts and music in education. These qualities were woven into the architectural exterior of the four new elementary schools to showcase these unique qualities in the community.

  • Lohr Elementary School – Borrowing aesthetics from rolling fields and the agricultural land that characterizes many acres in the Perry community, the building elevation employs a natural color scheme with masonry patterns on the brick face to replicate the waving fields of corn and wheat commonly found in the surrounding areas.
  • Southway (Knapp) Elementary School – This school borrows the red brick patterns from historic and current local manufacturing plants, while also surfacing patterns of crisscrossing steel beams on the exterior.
  • Whipple Elementary School – The façade of this school seeks to reflect American patriotism and a respect for the military through its use of colored masonry. It evokes feelings of pride, formal parades, and appreciation for the freedoms enjoyed in this country.
  • Watson Elementary School – This school borrows from Perry’s musical tradition by employing contrasting light and dark masonry which evokes an image of musical stanzas to create a playful pattern across the school’s shared spaces.

While each building is unique in its exterior treatment, they share similar layouts, to unify user experience. The exterior patterns root the buildings in the community’s heritage and create a playful and colorful environment for elementary students.

An architectural diagram showing the spacial layout of the new elementary schools.
A site plan for the Whipple Elementary School.
"We shaped the buildings according to educators needs. These groups really drove the design of the buildings."
Ryan Schmit
Project Manager

New Educational Opportunities

A key design principle for all four schools was to be rooted in the community and allow them to be easily accessed for events and activities. These are “community buildings” and not only do the aesthetics of the exterior signal this, but the parking, entrance and shared spaces were carefully designed to help parents and guests easily navigate each school.

In the early stages of the project, superintendent Scott Beatty remarked: “We’ve learned relationships are important,” the superintendent said. “In smaller schools it is easier to build a relationship with a young person. You have to build interpersonal positive relationships with kids for them to learn and grow.” This led to the decision to ultimately construct four new buildings, within a variety of collaborative features to educate students.

The new schools are flexibly designed to accommodate both traditional education methods along with collaborative learning spaces. Special consideration was given to each building’s “shared spaces,” like the gymnasium and student dining. These can easily be used for a variety of large activities during the day with the gym serving as a large auditorium space. Each school’s media center (library) features special furniture that encourages collaborative group work and adjacent shared rooms where educators can teach outside their classrooms.

The new buildings incorporate better air handling and filtration systems, providing air conditioning and better indoor air quality overall. Daylight is also important and windows in the buildings create brighter and more open indoor spaces. Technology is better integrated throughout the buildings through additional electrical access in classrooms, upgraded internet connectivity and equipment access in the media center.

The project timeline for the completion of the four new elementary schools.

A Future Facing District

All four schools are in the “design development” phase, which is slated to be finished in the fall of 2021. As this phase is finished, the design team looks forward to releasing more detailed renderings of the facilities towards the end of the year. Construction is planned to start in early 2022, with all four buildings completed and occupied for the 2023-2024 school year.

To stay up to date on future construction announcements, visit the Perry Local Schools website.

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.
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A Different Perspective on Architectural Drawing – ACE Mentor Program

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A Different Perspective on Architectural Drawing - ACE Mentor Program
ThenDesign Architecture has proudly participated in the ACE Mentor Program for years. This year, we taught a session on the importance of communication through architectural drawing. In order to best engage high school students in a distanced format, the team needed to come up with a unique way to demonstrate these architectural conventions.

ThenDesign Architecture is a proud participant of the ACE Mentor Program in Cleveland, Ohio. The ACE Mentor Program is an afterschool, educational program that exposes high school students to the architecture, construction, and engineering industries. Partnering with schools across the United States, including the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, designers from TDA recently explained the importance of communication in our field. For this engagement session, Jeff Henderson, Claire Bank and James Cowan built a “super-sized” architectural canvas to emphasize why we need to take a different perspective on architectural drawing.

About the ACE Mentor Program

The ACE Mentor Program of America is an afterschool program which was crafted to attract high school students to the architecture, construction, and engineering industries as well as the skilled trades. With over 70 affiliates across 37 states in the continental Unites States, the program is mostly based in metropolitan areas and allow students to explore different design projects in the industry.

The program brings together more than 4,100 professionals, high school teachers and students at events, with each one covering a different aspect of the architecture, engineering and construction industry. Trade professionals deliver educational sessions, engagement activities and take students on site visits to help them better understand how the built world is shaped. ACE also awards approximately $2.5 million annually in scholarships to those who are pursuing industry centered careers.

Interestingly, more than 70% of ACE seniors enter a skilled trade program or enter college with an industry-related major. According to ACE’s student surveys, the majority of students passing through the program felt motivated to attend college and picked up skills and knowledge that weren’t covered in their formal education.

At TDA, several of our designers, have participated in this important program. We have seen firsthand the difference it makes.

"Just as a writer uses words to create a verbal story, an architect uses drawings to tell a creative visual story."
Jeff Henderson
Architect

A Different Perspective on Architectural Drawing

Jeff Henderson, a 12-year ACE mentor at John Hay High School in Cleveland, who presented this year’s session on drawing commented: “Architectural drawing is really about telling a story. It’s a story about a building. Just as a writer uses words to create a verbal story, an architect uses drawings to tell a creative visual story.” A foundational principle of architecture is that a designer must communicate their ideas to a client or other professional on a collaborative team. To be a leader in this industry, we must be able to communicate effectively.

For Jeff, the importance of drawing touches on three vital areas–learning, thinking and communicating. He states: “For me, drawing is a form of learning. When architects see a building or walk into a space, they suddenly shift into “architect mode” and they begin asking themselves questions. “Why does it look like that?” “Why did they use that material?” “How was that detailed?” It is said that inspiration comes from anywhere and that is absolutely true. So, we analyze good buildings and good spaces and record them through drawings and notes. The second part is that drawing is a form of thinking. It is in the process of drawing where you start to think about the design of a building and it becomes a process of testing, looking at different ideas and making decisions to move the design along. The third portion is that drawing is a vital tool for communication. The ability to clearly communicate designs, visually and verbally, to clients or stakeholders is crucial. That is probably the most important skill an architect can have.

“Behind the Scenes” Setup

As a firm dedicated to educational design, we continually think about unique ways to engage students, educators, and communities. While these sessions are normally conducted in person, during this time of distanced learning and remote workshops, the mentorship team devised a new way to communicate architectural drawing conventions.

They devised a setup that involved suspending a high-definition camera, with a wide angle lens 10′ in the air in our unfinished office building. Then we laid out (3) 4’x8′ sheets of wall board side by side creating a “life sized canvas” that was 12′ wide x 8′ high. The team then took turns sketching plans, sections, elevations, and perspectives on the sheets to demonstrate how designers use these different types of drawings to communicate their ideas.

In the presentation, Jeff used these examples to illustrate how a simple drawing can communicate a complicated architectural idea.

This unique presentation method allowed us to engage with students in a novel way, forcing them to take a completely different perspective on architectural drawing and its impact on communication. For Claire and James, longtime ACE Mentor participants, they found the exercise helped them see drawing in a new light. It gave the whole team an opportunity to think through the best way to engage a remote audience using technology, while underscoring the necessity of drawing throughout the architectural process.

For Claire, education has always been a focus of her career, “So I try to find other ways, besides designing schools, to weave education into what I do with my career. I think ACE brings architecture and its related fields to schools that may not focus on it as much. Especially serving schools in Cleveland, we are focusing on developing skills that could lead to opportunities for underprivileged communities, leading to more diversity in the industry.”

Similarly, James learned about educational design through mentors involved in the ACE program. This led him to a love of this kind of design. “What’s funny is I didn’t know I would be as passionate about educational design until I got to TDA. They had a mentorship program through ACE and I started to learn more about them. Once I got here, I started understanding the impact within a community, and that’s something I wanted to be a part of. It’s very exciting to see the groundbreaking, then openings and kids running into a new school. You can see how it impacts someone’s life.”

We are committed to bringing a different perspective on architectural drawing, educational design and developing new ways to engage with communities on their projects. We look forward to providing new vantage points for the next round of high school students entering the AEC industry.

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Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

Memorial Junior High School – Evolution of an Historic Building

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Memorial Junior High School - Evolution of an Historic Building
Historic buildings often have very storied pasts. What might have started as one type of building may eventually evolve into something very different. When dealing with these structures, architects can find imaginative and creative ways to repurpose them. Memorial Junior High School in Willoughby, Ohio is one example of the evolution of an historic building.

Space to Work, Collaborate, Mentor and Lead

Memorial Junior High School in downtown Willoughby is the future home of ThenDesign Architecture. We are rehabilitating this structure, modernizing the spaces and technology, restoring damaged surfaces and finishes, intending to move our offices here and experiencing firsthand the evolution of an historic building.

Public architecture is rich with opportunities to collaborate with stakeholders. At the start of most of our projects, we advocate for “Educational Visioning Sessions.” These collaborative events bring together a variety of stakeholders including, educators, students, administrators from the school district, architects and the community to imagine what their new building could be. To kick off our own rehabilitation project, we did the same.

The Historic 1923 Building

According to the initial plans of Memorial Junior High School drafted in 1923 by architect Franz C. Warner, a popular educational designer in Cleveland, the building was relatively simple in design. This 2-story symmetrical building resembles an arrow in its floor plan. Four classrooms are located on the first floor, one being a “Domestic Science,” space, another dedicated for “Manual Training” and another 2 generic rooms were situated at the front of the building. These rooms were all connected by a corridor which led to the boys and girl’s locker rooms, along with the main gym. Through the years, this gym served as a lunchroom, a large gathering space and athletic space. The second floor largely replicated the first, with 4 classrooms, a small library and space for additional student lockers.

Future additions were designed at the ends of the building, but these were never completed in the original structure.

Since beginning the project, we have received dozens of stories from people in the community who recount stories of their time in this building. The school made an impact in the lives of the students who traversed its halls, first as a Junior High School, then a high school annex and finally a career center.

With that in mind, great care was taken to preserve this local landmark in Willoughby, as the historic building goes through its next evolution in our area.

Staff Visioning

In 2017, TDA conducted a visioning session with our staff to identify the best ways to utilize the new space. Held at the Paradigm Center, a professional development center at Mentor Public Schools, key design team members prepared presentations and activities to engage the staff on how we can use our new building. This opportunity allowed us to put our “visioning sessions” into practice in a personal way. The day long activity engaged our staff to identify the challenges and opportunities in the new space.

We engaged our staff with a variety of questions, like “How do we want to gather?” “How do we want to share?,” “How do we want to communicate?,” How do we want to produce?,” “How do we want to focus?” and “How do we want to organize?” All this was to draw out feedback on how the new space could be used as a modern architectural office.

Throughout the day, we created lists of existing challenges, needs and requests. Then as an exercise, drew solutions on site and floor plans to address these points.

While we may never get the jacuzzi, on staff chef, weekly DJ, fireplaces, video games or a bank of lava lamps but it never hurts to dream.

However, a key question in engagement was “How do we want to work?.” This question touched on many aspects of the interior of the space and three key points became apparent.

Identifying Building Challenges

First, redesigning the building to support flexible spaces was key. Our design teams work on a variety of projects and each has their own schedules, needs, meetings and stakeholders. So, having a building layout that supports spontaneous meetings and demonstrations was important. Many designers appreciated their dedicated workspaces, but in collaborative design, there isn’t always a need for privacy. So, to support this, we created a variety of spaces that could be used for private individual work or repurposed for open team meetings.

Second, technology plays a huge role in our architectural efforts. Computer infrastructure stores CAD drawings, project imagery and administrative documents which need to be accessible at all times. High powered computers render animations, exporting video productions and graphical presentations. These need to be accessed both locally and remotely. With this in mind, preparing a building that was designed circa 1923, to accept all the modern, internet connected devices is a huge challenge. Since faster and more comprehensive technology was needed, extra time was spent developing a connectivity plan. Ethernet cable runs, the number and placement of Wi-Fi hotspots, conference room connectivity and signal transmission through old construction materials was closely considered. Seamlessly retrofitting technology in the school was a big part of the project and these needs certainly weren’t considered in the 20’s when the building was constructed.

Third, even though the architecture industry is moving towards being paperless, modern architects still have to print and lay out large format multipage documents for review. We still have a large need for storage and spaces to layout these documents and mark them up. (Anyone who has seen our current space understands how important that is!) In addition to this, over half of our staff wanted to find ways to move around during the day. Anyone working in a modern office can attest to fatigue from sitting all day. In order to satisfy this, the over 20,000 sqft building allows for large areas for document review, outdoor spaces, stairs for exercise, a materials library and plenty of open space in the studio allows designers to move freely, reviewing hardcopy work in designated areas while focusing on digital work at their desks.

Having identified the challenges with our current space, we could better understand how to respond to the changing nature of architectural work in our new office.

The Evolution of an Historic Building

In order to incorporate these challenges and opportunities, we developed interior spaces to satisfy each need.

Reception: The new entryway is designed to display a modern space to greet clients and showcase our work. Adjacent to it is a proper mail room for incoming and outgoing drawings and communications. With over a dozen projects running concurrently, we regularly send document packages, RFQ’s, printed boards and other time sensitive materials. Dedicated spaces for these two functions makes for a much better first impression!

Architectural Studio: The largest space in the building is designed as an architectural studio. Located in the former gymnasium, we removed a large portion of the ceiling, making it a 2-story space and allowing for visual connection between the two floors. It is where the majority of architects, interior designers and planners have their desk spaces. It can be creatively reconfigured to accommodate either social distancing or to fit a more employees as needs dictate.

Mezzanine: On the second floor, it hosts additional designers along with separate work areas or “caves” located at the back of the space. Designed with private work in mind, they provide a flexible space for conference calls or where isolation and focus is required.

Flex Café: This large space is the result of combining two historic classrooms together. This flexible open area allows staff to gather as a creative team in discussions, design charrettes, large scale teaching activities or areas for team meetings, demonstrations and training. It also provides a different venue for a flexible work area to move around, when you need to get away from your desk.

Kaehr Conference Room: This conference room is our largest and where client meetings and conference calls are held. Located on the front of the building, this technologically advanced room is equipped with the A/V gear needed to broadcast our larger internal teams and connect them to our clients offsite.

While these plans may evolve in terms of color or texture up until we move in, these spaces depict how the Memorial Junior High School continues to show the evolution of an historic building. We look forward to moving into the space showing its completion next year.

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

“Educational Visioning Sessions” – Imagining Better Ways to Educate

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"Educational Visioning Sessions" - Imagining Better Ways to Educate
Educational Visioning Sessions are collaborative planning events, that allow architects, educators and students to ensure a future school construction project is successful. Working together, they identify goals, priorities and design solutions from a wide variety of perspectives. A robust Educational Visioning session encourages attendees to imagine better ways to educate generations of students through good design.

“Educational Visioning Sessions” are collaborative events that allow architects, school districts and the community to imagine all the ways a new school facility can provide better student opportunities. Early in the design process, they establish project goals, design challenges and priorities, along with introducing the architects and solidify relationships between stakeholders. It also provides a glimpse into how these new spaces will further the school district’s curriculum. During Educational Visioning Sessions, we are free to think openly, unencumbered with budget numbers, square footage totals and headcounts. We can imagine how this new building will positively affect our district, our educators, and the future of our community.

Facility Design - A Big Decision

According to the 2020 Facilities & Construction Brief by Spaces4Learning, educational spending has continually increased since 2013. As of 2019, the United States spends $98 billion dollars on educational construction projects annually. As the US population increases, so does the need for schools, colleges and research institutions. With the educational landscape shifting rapidly over the last several years due to technology changes, updated facilities are a necessity, attracting the best students and educators. Even though capital investment has generally increased, facilities’ needs have outpaced funding. The project backlog is unending and makes relationships between educational institutions and the AEC industry more important than ever.

While the decision to begin a new school construction project (including renovations to existing buildings) is thrilling, it is also incredibly stressful. Often years of preparation go into it, with dozens of people involved. Steps such as securing funding, passing bond issues, levies, existing facility assessments and master planning all lead up to the decision to build a new school. Since all budgets are limited, it’s necessary for every dollar spent to bring the maximum return for each district.

"Problem Seeking"

Abby Raineri, a lead designer at TDA regularly engages with districts and architects early in the design process. She is familiar with seeking out the needs of each district.

“Many times, our clients come to us, not even knowing what to ask for. So that leads us to help them discover what they need and what to ask for. We call it “problem seeking.” It’s a lot of listening, data collecting, assessing a facility, and trying to figure out the problems they are trying to solve. We encourage conversations and explore multiple solutions with the goal of putting projects on an overall path to success. A lot of the biggest things we need to grapple with as we move into programming and schematic design, are established in early planning conversations about the project. It sets the tone for the rest of the design process.”

If communication between the district, community and architect aren’t realized, then the project is primed for failure. These relationships drive a projects success. By getting a wide variety of perspectives and identifying any roadblocks early on, it ensures the new school satisfies both the present and future needs of the community.

Educational Visioning Sessions

Early phases of design include an Educational Visioning Session. These unique events bring teachers, students, administrators, board members, local safety forces, community members and clergy together to discuss the project and ultimately serve as the genesis of the design. It’s not uncommon to have over 100 people in attendance taking part in these initial conversations. Ideas for the future building generated by participants are shared in round-table discussions and other interactive group activities. Grassroots ideas from those who will use the new structure are distilled and streamed into future plans. This is a time for architects to listen and capture the concerns and goals from these groups that will inform our design process.

They are a collaborative activity that results in a comprehensive planning tool for an educational institution. This session, often scheduled for the project kickoff, runs concurrently with the programming phase, usually long before we are thinking about the building’s shape. Everything is thrown against the wall (before we have designed walls to throw things at).

While all Educational Visioning Sessions are uniquely tailored to our clients, they can range from a few hours or last an entire day, depending on needs. They include presentations from the design team on the current state of education, the district’s desired curriculum, the current facilities and their limitations and cover plans for the future facility. The team presents case studies for how similar districts have handled facility upgrades, before we break out into small group discussions and other hands-on activities. These activities are designed to capture unique ideas for design solutions and get a sense of the visual direction for the project.

While our current circumstances don’t allow us to meet in large groups in the same way, we have a fully staffed communications department that enables us to perform these engagement sessions through staff polling, video production and other digital feedback activities.

This collaboration is why districts return to us again and again to provide architectural and planning services. We listen to our client’s needs and empower them to drive the initial designs and produce a completely unique building. This diversity of input is a hallmark of our design strategy and one element that strengthens our portfolio.

"Many times, our clients come to us, not even knowing what to ask for. So that leads us to help them discover what they need and what to ask for. We call it "problems seeking."
ABBY RAINERI
Registered Architect

Continuing Education

Engagement doesn’t stop at the Visioning Sessions early in the project but continues throughout the design process. During the planning and construction phases of design, TDA engages educators in training sessions as the project’s completion approaches. At these events, project designers, along with future occupants, attend a series of meetings dedicated to coaching and professional development. These sessions also include, brainstorming activities and interactive projects, that are geared towards training educators and administrators on ways to engage students in their new building. They are invaluable for collaboratively rethinking the way educational spaces can be used to promote student learning. This crucial component is a link between the early Educational Visioning Sessions and a fully occupied building.

Abby notes the importance of continually mining feedback from stakeholders. “Early on during the “programming phase” of building design, we move into engagement and work sessions. Our “Educational Visioning Sessions,” are a piece of this, along with staff engagement. We take different user groups or a core team on tours of new buildings, so they can see how other districts have solved space problems. In this initial concept phase, we are getting further into planning and feedback. After that, we begin the traditional kind of architectural process of making diagrams and drawing plan iterations, then continue engagement with the community, the board and the staff.”

Then, through exit interviews and teacher surveys, we measure how these architectural designs impact the education experience. We have found significant benefits such as reduced behavioral issues in the classroom, increased teaching time, and additional opportunities for student collaboration. All of these ensure that each student receives the best education possible.

We encourage student engagement throughout the process and have led student oriented charettes allowing them to help design new playgrounds, walk the construction site for facility updates and take an active role in construction by placing stones in a structure’s foundation before the floor slab is poured or by signing their names on beams before installation.

In addition, we hold community meetings during Schematic Design and Design Development to update the public on the building layout, getting their feedback on how the exterior of the building develops. We believe that professional educators should influence the design of the interior of the building and the community determines the exterior aesthetic. We have developed a number of interactive exercises to gauge what aesthetic the community feels most strongly about.

In short, we intentionally emphasize the needs of people and their experience as much as the building itself.
"So, it was a process of even delineating which goals were important to them or not. The architect shouldn't necessarily drive the stakeholder’s goals. It's their building, so they need to tell us what's important."
ED SHEARSON
Registered Architect

Ideas Come from Anywhere

We find that great ideas often come from very unconventional places. Chris Smith, TDA’s president recalled an instance where ideas on school security came from a third-grade student. He recounts: “We believe good ideas can come from anywhere and that means from anybody…We’ve had the strangest ideas come from the coolest places. When we were investigating school security and the potential of armed intruders, we were on the forefront of designing those guidelines. We actually got an idea from a young student in one of our collaborative processes and our Educational Visioning Sessions. They came up with an idea to color code the building so that if there was an intruder in their elementary school, they could say “the bad person is in the red part of the building or the blue part of the building.” That led to some very intuitive design standards that are still enforced today and it came from a third-grade student. So, the educational design process with school buildings in general is a very collaborative process, not only collaborative with our own designers but with the public at large.”

In another instance on the recently opened Garrett Morgan High School, the idea to split the building into two sections [public and school related functions] with a connecting bridge, came from a councilman involved at an educational visioning session. Jeff Henderson, a lead architect on the project mentioned: “We were on a very urban, commercial street, Detroit Ave. There was a desire not to have parking along the street, but still keep the front entrance there. That would force occupants to park on the opposite side of the site and walk all the way around the building. The councilman that was involved says, “I don’t want anybody to have to walk around the building, I want them to walk to the front door, which wants to be on Detroit Ave.” So that comment in part, resulted in the solution where we fractured the building into 2 sections and put a bridge on the second floor. This allowed everybody to circulate right from the parking lot, underneath the building and into the front door. So that was a big design challenge that was addressed in a collaborative session.”

Ed Shearson, who served as Project Manager on that building recalled: “There was a large stakeholder meeting early on in the project and it involved representatives from Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), the City of Cleveland, Gordon Square Planning Commission and local residents. We developed an inventory of goals for the site and they voted on that. Just because the architect notes a goal, that doesn’t mean it’s a goal the stakeholders share. So, it was a process of even delineating which goals were important to them or not. The architect shouldn’t necessarily drive the stakeholder’s goals. It’s their building, so they need to tell us what’s important.”

We believe that this collaboration and relationship building makes our process unique and successful. Educational Visioning Sessions establish a clear vision forward and how a district can use their new building to benefit students. It is an opportunity to build trust, develop support and champions for the project and incorporate the needs of the stakeholders into the finished building.

Key Takeaways

  • Relationships and communication (especially early on) are crucial to identifying design problems and implementing solutions.
  • "Educational Visioning Sessions" are key to brainstorming how a new building project will impact the community. This is also a time to talk through the district's goals for implementing the curriculum in their new spaces.
  • By engaging in a variety of interactive activities, among various stakeholders, we can ensure everyone's voice is heard and the concerns are prioritized.
  • Educators should take part in these important sessions. It allows them to provide direct input on future designs of their new building. They can also see how new spaces could be used to enhance their education plans.
  • Interesting design ideas can come from anyone, not just professional designers. By including a wide variety of stakeholders, (students, administrators, parents, and community members) these sessions grant additional perspectives on large projects and ensures the final designs are tailored to that community.

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

Design Collaboration is a Necessity

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Design Collaboration is a Necessity
Excellent design ideas can come from the most unlikely places. Throughout TDA’s design process, we engage individuals of all types in our projects. Chris Smith, TDA’s president, shares his insight into our process, the designers, and collaboration in public architecture.

In architecture, design collaboration is a necessity for a project’s outcome. This is especially important when designing buildings such as a school or municipal office. As in virtually every other creative endeavor, combining deep technical experience with a process that identifies challenges and incorporates feedback produces the most successful results.

Chris Smith, the president at ThenDesign Architecture, started in 1998 as a 28-year-old intern. Having come from a large, international design firm, he was drawn to the idea that through thoughtful, insightful and selfless design, architects could improve the lives of students by creating better spaces.

TDA: Why are you passionate about designing educational architecture?

Chris Smith: Architecture can be a very self-focused, egotistical profession. Since there’s artistry to it, the artist’s name rides along with the project and often times is the name of the firm itself. What attracted me to TDA from the beginning was that it wasn’t named after the leadership of the firm, but rather a concept that we were in the “thinking business,” not simply the “drawing business.” So now that I am the president of the company, not having my name on the door continues the legacy for what drew me here in the first place.

Our focus is the design of publicly owned facilities such as schools, municipal buildings, and recreation centers. We’re not charged with designing for one person; we’re tasked with designing for the greater public good. That involves collaborating with the community, with students, with teachers, with parents and the community at large, groups you may not think have a voice in architectural design. Our “client” is ultimately the many generations of students who will learn and thrive in these spaces.

I find that I am most gratified when I can help others succeed. Creating a lasting piece of architecture that improves student’s lives, impacting more people than we ever could touch physically. So that just builds on our core value of always seeking ways to help others succeed.

If you talk to any teacher or educator you find out that 98% of their job is finished if they can inspire a child to learn. If we can help in any small way ... then we're helping our teachers achieve their mission.
-Chris Smith

How does TDA encourage a collaborative design process?

Chris Smith: The design process at TDA is unique in our industry. In a typical firm, often an architect or designer singularly authors the design. However, we believe collaborative design produces a better product for our publicly-owned facilities. We approach our projects as a design team, with several architects working together. This diversity of perspective is what makes our design solutions strong. Even though there is a project manager who leads the group, the end result is never a single person’s idea.

We also engage with our clients and school communities throughout the project and really try to identify design challenges and opportunities early in the project. It’s that “problem-seeking” curiosity which drives our design process. Collaboration is a necessity and identifying where we can improve a district’s curriculum and student engagement through architectural design is the goal of this process. Sometimes that engagement takes a long time. However, it helps us better understand the district while simultaneously improving our designs.

Our philosophy is when your building is finished, you will have authored the design. So that’s why we don’t have our names on our doors or even titles on our business cards. Only through collaborative and selfless design can we truly create spaces for the greater good.

We believe that good ideas can come from anywhere and anybody. We've had the strangest ideas come from the coolest places.
-Chris Smith

How do educators and communities participate in our collaborative design process?

Chris Smith: If you talk to any teacher or educator you find out that 98% of their job is finished if they can inspire a child to learn. If we can help in any small way by creating an inspirational space, something that makes a teacher’s job easier or a student’s job more fun, then we’re helping our teachers achieve their mission.

There is a symbiotic relationship that inherently exists between a school district and their community. The community trusts the district to educate their children in a safe, effective, and efficient manner. The district trusts the community to provide the funding and support to do so. In the design process, we believe this trust between the school district and the community plays a large role in a successful project. It is incumbent upon the community to trust the professional educators to drive the layout of the spaces within the building. Likewise, the district must trust the community to provide valuable feedback on the exterior aesthetics of the building–how the site could best integrate with pedestrians, bicyclists and motor vehicles, location of playgrounds and ball fields. Only through the recognition, promotion and incorporation of this trust can a project involve all stakeholders in the design of a new school facility.

Our philosophy is when your building is finished, you will have authored the design.
-Chris Smith

What is an example of an unlikely design idea and where did it come from?

Chris Smith: We believe that good ideas can come from anywhere and anybody. So when we conduct “in-house charrettes” and collaborative design sessions, we don’t limit these to just the architects and administrators. Anybody is welcome to participate. We’ve had the strangest ideas come from the coolest places.

Some years back, we were investigating school security [the potential of armed intruders] and we were on the forefront of designing security guidelines for school buildings in Ohio. During one of our Educational Visioning Sessions, we received a brilliant idea from a young student. The student came up with an idea to color code the building so that if there was an intruder in their elementary school, they could call the authorities and state, “The bad person is in the red part of the building and moving into the blue part of the building.” That led to some very intuitive design standards that are still employed today. That wonderful idea came from a third-grade student. So, the educational design process surrounding school buildings is a very collaborative process, not only between our professional architects and designers, but amongst all stakeholders.

TDA, as a group of creative professionals, work to design and build the “next generation” educational and municipal facilities that are environmentally friendly, contextually rooted and inspiring to inhabit. Understanding that collaboration is a necessity, we look forward to working together with school districts, educators, and communities to design the educational facilities of the future.

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Chris Smith

Chris Smith

President

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Chris Smith

Chris Smith

Chris Smith serves as President of ThenDesign Architecture, providing strategic direction for the firm, executive oversight on projects and fostering culture for staff. For over 20 years, he’s cultivated a passion for educational design. He participated in the 2000 and 2004 US Olympic Trials, serves as a coach and mentor for athletes and is dedicated to lifelong learning.