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.