In August, SHP, an architecture, design, and engineering firm, broke ground on the new Peck Expeditionary Learning School in Greensboro, N.C.
Replacing the current Clara J. Peck Neighborhood K-5 Elementary, the Peck Expeditionary Learning School will be the district’s first building to adopt the K-8 model. Expeditionary Learning (EL) centers the curriculum around multidisciplinary learning expeditions that can take an entire semester for small or large groups to complete. Instead of revolving around classroom-based instruction, the learning expeditions encourage students to engage in interactive, iterative learning in their own communities.
The new school will house five learning communities that bring together similar grade levels, so students can collaborate with their own age groups. Each learning community will include spaces for student project displays, hands-on learning, and community engagement. Flexible classrooms will facilitate multiple instruction methods, while decompression spaces will help students cope with emotional challenges. Instead of a traditional cafeteria, a distributed dining system will bring meals to the students where they are.
“Following the feedback we heard from students, staff, and the community, we aimed to create a high-quality, student-focused environment capable of fostering an entire generation of lifelong learners,” David Powell, SHP architect and senior project manager, said in a statement.
In recent years, SHP has completed several other school projects designed for progressive pedagogies, such as the lower and upper school campuses at Winton Woods City Schools in Cincinnati, Ohio—one of the country’s first school district-wide redesigns to support Project-Based Learning (PBL).
On the Building Team:
Owner: Guilford County Schools
Design architect: SHP
Architect of record: SHP
MEP engineer: SAMR
Structural engineer: Lynch-Mykins
Construction manager at risk, joint venture: Christman/D.A. Everett
Related Stories
| Jun 9, 2014
Green Building Initiative launches Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors program
The new program focuses exclusively on the sustainable design and construction of interior spaces in nonresidential buildings and can be pursued by both building owners and individual lessees of commercial spaces.
| Jun 9, 2014
10 projects named 2014 AIA Small Project Award winners
Yale's funky new Ground café and a pavilion made from 53,780 recycled plastic bottles are among the nation's best new small projects.
| May 29, 2014
7 cost-effective ways to make U.S. infrastructure more resilient
Moving critical elements to higher ground and designing for longer lifespans are just some of the ways cities and governments can make infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate change, writes Richard Cavallaro, President of Skanska USA Civil.
Sponsored | | May 27, 2014
Grim Hall opens the door to fire safety with fire-rated ceramic glass
For the renovation of Lincoln University’s Grim Hall life sciences building into a state-of-the-art computer facility, Tevebaugh Associates worked to provide students and faculty with improved life safety protection. Updating the 1925-era facility's fire-rated doors was an important component of the project.
| May 23, 2014
Big design, small package: AIA Chicago names 2014 Small Project Awards winners
Winning projects include an events center for Mies van der Rohe's landmark Farnsworth House and a new boathouse along the Chicago river.
| May 23, 2014
Top interior design trends: Gensler, HOK, FXFOWLE, Mancini Duffy weigh in
Tech-friendly furniture, “live walls,” sit-stand desks, and circadian lighting are among the emerging trends identified by leading interior designers.
| May 22, 2014
Big Data meets data centers – What the coming DCIM boom means to owners and Building Teams
The demand for sophisticated facility monitoring solutions has spurred a new market segment—data center infrastructure management (DCIM)—that is likely to impact the way data center projects are planned, designed, built, and operated.
| May 22, 2014
Just two years after opening, $60 million high school stadium will close for repairs
The 18,000-seat Eagle Stadium in Allen, Texas, opened in 2012 to much fanfare. But cracks recently began to appear throughout the structure, causing to the school district to close the facility.
| May 20, 2014
Kinetic Architecture: New book explores innovations in active façades
The book, co-authored by Arup's Russell Fortmeyer, illustrates the various ways architects, consultants, and engineers approach energy and comfort by manipulating air, water, and light through the layers of passive and active building envelope systems.
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.