Marine Science Magnet High School of Southeastern CT
James La Posta, JCJ Architecture
130 Shennecossett Rd, Groton, CT 06340
A 2014 MacConnell Award Finalist, the school was the result of a ten year effort by a regional educational service provider to bring together a wide variety of area partners in the development of a new high school to prepare students for higher education and/or marine related employment.
The design team was challenged to create a building for the marine sciences that would be engaging, agile, dynamic and mission responsive. Students spend half their time outside the building doing fieldwork and the other half of their time in the building engaging in classroom learning. The team focused on creating a dynamic environment that would prepare students for next steps in their lives by modeling the environments they will encounter in research, industry, open corporate offices or college.
The school features "Home Base" – a continuous, multi-setting space that forms the heart of the second floor learning studio. The school is a technology-rich space with easily moveable furniture to support socialization, project-based learning, informal and formal group uses. The building design promotes a sense of student pride and ownership by linking a variety of spatial experiences and the continuous flow and gentle visual delineation of these areas converts spaces that would traditionally be set aside for circulation or core functions into active parts of the learning environment.
Learning Objectives
- Design principles of effective project-based learning environments
- The ways that agile space can support the creation of a community of learners
- Methods to develop highly technical aquaculture labs for high school students
- View how the school has evolved and adapted over time to new programs and ideas
James LaPosta has been shaping educational solutions for over 25 years and is JCJ Architecture's Chief Architectural Officer. Under his direction the firm has received more than 75 awards for design excellence in the last 15 years. An expert in PreK-12 and higher education facility design, Jim's work focuses on the contribution of the built environment to the creation of strong learning communities. He is a frequent lecturer, design juror, and his work has been widely published. He is also a former National Chair of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education. Jim was the Principal-in-Charge and Design Principal for the Marine Science Magnet HS of Southeastern CT as well as the 2016 MacConnell Award winning Fairchild Wheeler Inter-district Magnet Campus.
Archie R. Cole Middle School
100 Cedar Avenue, East Greenwich, RI 02818
Edward Frenette, SMMA
The Archie R. Cole Middle School, a 110,000-square-foot facility accommodating 573 students in grades 6-8, represents the latest thinking in producing learning spaces for students, teachers, and administrators.
SMMA's inclusive approach to programming and designing the school brought together faculty and staff, town council, building and school committees, and the neighborhood association. To avoid the appearance of the school being out of scale for the neighborhood, SMMA's design located the highest point of the structure central to the site, then "stepped" the building down to the residential street. We also created a "civic core" by locating a multipurpose space and gymnasium around the cafeteria that can be used for community activities. The three-story academic west wing is located at the quiet center of the site, while the more civic functions step down to the residential height of the surrounding neighborhood.
Learning Objectives
- Observe how a school plan can be formed around the needs of three grades of middle school students with a design population of 573, two teams per grade, one grade per floor, 95 students per team.
- Discuss how architectural characteristics, such as access to natural light and view, plan organization and civic transparency, contribute to positive student performance and behavior.
- Review how a multifunctional dinning commons can enhance student learning during the day and neighborhood use during the night.
- Discuss how well objectives for the building as a learning tool have been met.