Description

There is much discussion regarding the use of schools for community activities outside school hours. Clearly, having expensive publicly funded buildings lying empty during evening hours and school vacations is a waste of resources on a grand scale. The Helen S. Faison Academy is the first new school built in the City of Pittsburgh in more than 20 years. It is located on a dense urban site of 2.1 hectares at the heart of a generally run-down area of the inner city. The key idea, which secured funding for this stylish new development, was the intention to offer after-hours community activities including early years Head Start programmes. Thus this building would act as a catalyst for neighbourhood revitalisation.

The new school buildings are orientated along a predominantly north-south axis so that views from the school do not disturb the privacy of the surrounding single-family housing. Whilst predominantly open on its south side with the parking lot, community athletic field and East Busway, an elevated commuter line which separates the site from the residential areas on the southwest, the architects have developed a tree lined wall-fence which secures these open edges without making it appear prison-like and austere. The main entrance along the northeastern façade is framed by what the architects describe as a trellis covered walkway stretching some way across the frontage. It provides students and neighbours with a symbolic ‘front porch’ to emulate and echo the vocabulary of the surrounding residential buildings. It is this sense of scale, appropriate to its users, young and old alike, yet also civic and urban, which gives the building a new architectural language fit for its time.

The exterior design introduces glass and red brick veneer in a contemporary masonry system to connect the classroom and programme spaces to the exterior spaces whilst allowing daylight to permeate the interior. The School Board required that the plan should be flexible to accommodate periodical changes in school size and educational focus over time. Therefore the design relies on a zonal concept with three primary areas, identified almost as three subsidiary buildings in one, which can be readily extended. These areas can be described firstly as a public part, comprising gymnasium and cafeteria, secondly a semi-private administration zone with offices and a library, and finally a private zone of classrooms and faculty rooms. Of particular note are what the architects describe as a ‘pod’ classroom arrangement, which includes a cluster of four classrooms, a project area, toilets and circulation in one partially self-contained unit.

The project area is used as a break-out space for student and faculty projects. The accommodation comprises 15 standard sized classrooms, three kindergarten rooms, four special education rooms, a library, a multi-purpose rooms for community use and specialised art, music and science rooms. There is a 250-seat cafeteria with kitchen, a large gymnasium with its own stage and a health area with related admini­strative areas. A large gallery display space adjoins the multi-purpose room, gymnasium and cafeteria to create a ’community street’ which buzzes with activity.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.