How Teaching Philosophies Influence Design

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Paul Avazier, AIA, LEED AP

We’re excited to share recent photos of the new classrooms at Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, PA. With a growing Pre-K program, and a move towards the Reggio Emilia style of teaching, we converted an underutilized double height space into additional Pre-K space and added a new classroom.

We collaborated with the teachers and administrators to create innovative ways for the design to support the Reggio Emilia teaching philosophy, a program which emphasizes self-guided discovery. One result was the creation of a flexible divider system that can be reconfigured in many ways; teachers are able to set up learning stations with different focuses that allow students to engage with one another in smaller groups to promote self-exploration and community.

EA Lower School

A loft with ground floor seating and storage benches was also added, which creates quiet zones for gathering and reading.

Pre-K

National Bike Challenge

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Kristen Suzda, LEED AP

We’ve signed up for the National Bike Challenge as a firm, and have almost half our employees in Philadelphia and Santa Fe on the team. The challenge starts today, May 1, which is the first day of National Bike Month, and runs through September.

The Challenge is a health and wellness initiative that encourages people to bike for transportation and recreation with this year’s goal  of having 50,000 riders pedaling 20 million miles.

Our firm goal is to ride as many days and as many miles as possible. As a bonus, there are prizes!

If you want to get in on the challenge, check out: www.endomondo.com/campaign/nbc2013

We can’t wait to see how our bike-loving offices do! We’ll be sure to keep you updated throughout the summer!

National Bike Challange

Diverting Construction Waste

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Kristen Suzda, LEED AP

If you’re not careful, the construction waste you try to divert from the landfill might wind up there anyway.

At the end of every working day, landfill operators have to put a cover layer on top of their landfilled material, which reduces odors, pests, and wind-borne trash. Sometimes this is virgin soil. Sometimes, in the case of “alternate daily cover,” it’s construction waste–the construction waste you were trying to divert from the landfill in the first place. Because the alternate daily cover, or ADC, isn’t “tipped” into the landfills the same way as more general waste, the LEED rating system considers it diverted from the landfills, even though it still winds up there. While using construction waste as ADC is one option for its end of life use, we would prefer that the construction waste we’re trying to divert from the landfill actually get diverted from the landfill.

Revolution Recovery

Revolution Recovery

 

On our project at Friends Select School, we worked with a spec writer and noted that we wanted to make sure that construction waste was actually diverted from the landfill through recycling and not used as ADC. A couple quick email exchanges later, our spec writer understood what we were after, what ADC is, and agreed to change our specification.

And noted that he was changing his office master specifications system, as well. Future projects, both ours and his other clients’, will benefit from the education that happened in this email exchange. You can’t always see the difference your efforts make; we’re proud to see this one.

 

Eastern State Penitentiary in the News

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Shawn Evans, AIA, Associate, Director of Cultural and Preservation Projects

Shawn Evans, AIA,
Associate, Director of Cultural and Preservation Projects

One of our many amazing clients, Eastern State Penitentiary, had a lot of publicity the last couple weeks.

          • CNN Travel highlights ESP as one of 10 prisons open to the public. You’ve probably heard of many of these, but there are some surprising finds.
          • Beth Kephart writes an inspiring soliloquy for the Philadelphia Inquirer about the inspiring struggle to preserve ESP and how we should continue this legacy of difficult preservation today.
          • The New York Times profiles the fascinating “pop-up museum” on display through April 1
          • And perhaps most importantly, NPR’s All Things Considered explores ESP’s history in a story about the appropriateness of solitary confinement.

215051cvEastern State’s policy was more correctly described as “the separate treatment system” and was put in place with the best of intentions It was determined to not be successful at rehabilitation and frankly was just too crowded and too expensive to run. The system evolved and the building attempted to evolve. When it could evolve no more, it closed. It stands today to teach us and to make us think. Eastern State exemplifies why we need historic sites. Not to simply bask in a romantic vision of the past, not to simply look at pretty things. We need historic sites – well preserved and well interpreted – in order to truly understand where we’ve come from, where we’ve gone wrong, and how we should act today and tomorrow.

We’re very excited for Eastern State’s future that is as much about understanding the past, as it is about questioning the future. The Interpretive Plan, Preservation Plan, and Master Plan we developed with many collaborators are currently being refined as part of a Strategic Plan. We are currently working on a study to create museum-quality spaces,  storage, and displays within the walls of the prison. As indicated in the NY Times piece, current environmental conditions within the prison prohibit the long-term display of their growing collections.

From much planning comes great things. Stay tuned.

We’re Hiring: Public Interest Design – Assistant Project Manager

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Our Santa Fe office is in search of an assistant project manager for our public interest design, sustainable development, and institutional projects. Responsibilities include preparing drawings from presentation to construction documents, coordinating with engineers, researching products and materials, and helping to establish schedules and milestones. Additional responsibilities may include preparation of green training materials, organizing travel schedules, grant writing and presentations.

The ideal candidate will be very well-rounded, articulate and organized, with 3-6 years experience in an architecture firm. Technical proficiency in construction documentation and excellent writing skills are critical. Computer proficiency must include, at a minimum, AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suites including InDesign, and Excel. Preference will be given to candidates with prior public interest design experience, familiarity with Revit, and LEED Accredited Professionals. We are an equal opportunity employer. Interested candidates should submit a letter of interest, resume, and digital portfolio to Jamie Blosser at jblosser@aosarchitects.com no later than April 1.

Featured in Architectural Record: Sheltering the World

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Shawn Evans, AIA
Associate, Director of Preservation and Cultural Projects

Atkin Olshin Schade Architects is thrilled to announce that the Owe’neh Bupingeh Preservation Project is one of thirteen projects from around the world to be featured in the March 2013 issue of Architectural Record.

The special issue, “Sheltering the World,” focuses on the global challenge of providing housing that is “integrated with social services as well as connected to the urban fabric and the wider community.”

The projects are located in Brussels, Singapore, Rwanda, California, China, Brooklyn, Sao Paolo, Helsinki, Oaxaca, as well as our project in Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico.

One of the featured projects is by MASS Design Group, a firm that has been on several panels with Jamie Blosser, our Associate, at many Public Interest Design Institutes events.

Ohkay Owingeh is very proud of this project and is pleased to set an example for balancing cultural preservation with a very urgent need to provide improved housing for its people.

Ohkay Owingeh Plaza

Read the article online here as well the project page on our website.  If you have not yet seen the short film produced for the 2012 SEED Awards, it can be seen here.

The image above by Kate Russell captures light and shadow beautifully. In this post we thought we’d share some additional images showing the place full of life. To best mean to understand Ohkay Owingeh is to visit during one of the Pueblo’s dances. It is overwhelming to see these timeless traditions occurring in the plazas which have been so transformed in the last few years. As photography is forbidden during the dances, we’ll share these photos by Tania Hammidi, taken during last year’s community mud plastering.

We took part in the plastering day and look forward to participating in future plastering days  as long as we’re invited. It is an honor to assist in the design, rebuilding, and ongoing maintenance of this place with our own hands.

Kids

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