For juniors and seniors of the Natrona County School System in Casper, Wyo., the Pathways Innovation Center, a newly built high school, offers a 38-acre campus comprising four academies focused on multiple disciplines to help students explore possible career paths. The beating heart of the Pathways Innovation Center is Fabrication Hall, a 5,000-sf common space flanked on all sides by technology-focused labs. The two-story hall was inspired by private sector facilities, such as Boeing’s complex in Washington state, that house their engineering and design teams under one roof.
The hall offers bountiful natural light with enough space to build large-scale projects. Included in the hall are 16-foot-high, custom-fabricated glass bay doors that fully open to the outside. In order to inspire collaboration, the hall, and the activities taking place within it, can be viewed from surrounding glass-walled design spaces. A “floating blue box” is used for informal learning and overlooks the hall.
By having a common space for a variety of disciplines—construction, woodworking, metals, welding, robotics, arts, furniture making—students learn cross-collaboration.
“It’s an incubator for prototyping,” says Scott Krenner, Design Lead, Education, with Cuningham Group, which designed the school in conjunction with MOA Architecture. Also on the team: Martin/Martin (SE), Engineering Design Associates (MEP), Civil Engineering Professionals (CE), D.L. Adams (acoustics), and Groathouse Construction (GC).
Photo courtesy of Cuningham Group.
Photo courtesy of Cuningham Group.
Related Stories
| May 24, 2012
Stellar completes St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and Day School renovation and expansion
The project united the school campus and church campus including a 1,200-sf chapel expansion, a new 10,000-sf commons building, 7,400-sf of new covered walkways, and a drop-off pavilion.
| May 21, 2012
Winchester High School receives NuRoof system
Metal Roof Consultants attended a school board meeting and presented a sloped metal retrofit roof as an alternative to tearing off the existing roof and replacing it with another flat roof.
| May 8, 2012
Gensler & J.C. Anderson team for pro bono high school project in Chicago
City Year representatives came to Gensler for their assistance in the transformation of the organization’s offices within Orr Academy High School, which also serve as an academic and social gathering space for students and corps members.
| Mar 5, 2012
Perkins Eastman pegs O’Donnell to lead K-12 practice
O’Donnell will continue the leadership and tradition of creative design established by firm Chairman and CEO Bradford Perkins FAIA, MRAIC, AICP in leading this market sector across the firm’s 13 offices domestically and internationally.
| Dec 27, 2011
USGBC’s Center for Green Schools releases Best of Green Schools 2011
Recipient schools and regions from across the nation - from K-12 to higher education - were recognized for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, record numbers of LEED certified buildings and collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructure.
| Dec 5, 2011
RJM Construction begins building Nova Classical Academy in St. Paul
As the general contractor, RJM is constructing the 94,000-sf building that will consolidate the St. Paul school’s two other locations.
| Sep 23, 2011
Under 40 Leadership Summit
Building Design+Construction’s Under 40 Leadership Summit takes place October 26-28, 2011 Hotel at the Monteleone in New Orleans. Discounted hotel rate deadline: October 2, 2011.
| Sep 12, 2011
LACCD’s $6 billion BIM connection
The Los Angeles Community College District requires every design-build team in its massive modernization program to use BIM, but what they do with their 3D data after construction is completed may be the most important change to business as usual.
| Jul 22, 2011
Five award-winning modular innovations
The Modular Building Institute's 2011 Awards of Distinction highlight fresh ideas in manufactured construction projects.