| MONDAY | JUNE 6, 2022 – 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM |
| Equity Workshop / Panel: Can Space Be an Accomplice to Racial and Educational Equity? |
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Grand Apple South
Equity Series Full Information »
Presenter/Moderator:
Amara H. Pérez, PhD
At the conference, participants will be introduced to a socio-spatial approach to design and strategies for equity-driven practices including: a critical race spatial lens, a multidimensional inquiry framework, and the methodology of participatory engagement.
This session will also include a panel discussion from a range of perspectives – school leaders, designers, equity consultants, and capital projects. Panelists will reflect and share their personal insights and experiences in centering equity in design and educational settings followed by Q&A to open the conversation.
Panelists:
Shanna Crutchfield, Director of Equity and Inclusion, Vanir Construction
Laura DeGooyer, Capital Projects Manager, Lake Washington School District
Dedy Fauntleroy, Principal at Northgate Elementary, Seattle Public Schools
Karina Ruiz, Founding Principal, BRIC Architecture
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| TUESDAY | JUNE 7, 2022 – 8:30 – 10:00 AM |
| Equity Small Groups: Practice, Process, and Policy – Strategies for Equity and Inclusion in Educational Design |
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Fuji 1-2/3-4 and Gala 1-2/3-4
Equity Series Full Information »
Presenters/Projects:
Shanna Crutchfield, DLR/SPS
Dedy Fauntleroy, NAC/SPS
Amara H. Pérez, Mahlum/SPS
Karina Ruiz, BRIC
At the conference, participants are invited to hear from a range of projects to take a deep dive into practice. Case studies offer an opportunity to name and share practical strategies for centering equity in the design process. Participants joining this session will be given a Case Study Card to track and document key insights and burning questions. A Discourse Room will be integrated into this session to invite pause, reflection, and discussion on key takeaways generated through case studies.
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| TUESDAY | JUNE 7, 2022 – 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM |
| Keynote Speaker: George Couros – "Thinking Inside the Box" |
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Grand Apple South
George Couros, is currently an Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Consultant and speaker and the author of “The Innovator’s Mindset” and “Innovate Inside the Box” and co-owner of IMPress Books. He has worked at all school levels, from K-12 as a teacher, technology facilitator, and school and district administrator, and is currently an Adjunct Instructor with the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He believes that creating a collaborative environment with all stakeholders will help to ensure that we meet the best needs of all children.
He is lucky to be the father of two wonderful children, Kallea and Georgia, and is driven to ensure that they and every student have amazing experience in their K-12 schooling. He is not focused solely on preparing students for the “real world” but want them to make the real world better.
By being curious, collaborative, and open to new learning, we can truly inspire our students to not only be prepared for the real world but ensure that they make the world better than it is now.
He believes that meaningful change happens when you first connect to people’s hearts and then their minds, and does his best to model this through my speaking, writing, and daily work.
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| TUESDAY | JUNE 7, 2022 – 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM |
| Frameworks for Engaging Stakeholders in a Trauma-Informed Design Charrette |
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Fuji 1-2
Presentation » | Workbook »
Nationwide, communities are furtively returning to their learning environments in an unprecedented, post-pandemic era. For the first time, the adverse effects of trauma on children, and by extension the community-at-large, are now recognized by educational institutions and stakeholders nation-wide as a critical issue – the pandemic shifted the paradigm and normalized mental wellness as a topic of discussion due to its evident universal adverse effects. Those experiencing trauma are unable to learn, therefore healing must happen first before setting academic goals. A System of Support comprising of caring educational institutions, stakeholders, educators, and counselors in our schools are integral to communities nationwide. A System of Support trained in Trauma-Informed care can reshape lives and change the trajectories of millions of children towards a more resilient future. It can reduce crime and drop-out rates, and enhance positive outcomes such as graduation rates, and engaged, present children who are ready and eager to learn. This trained System of Support plays the main role in helping their learners recover and heal from trauma. Promising practices in Trauma-Informed Care have begun to emerge that can buffer children, adults, and families from trauma’s adverse effects and to prevent their most negative consequences. One important aspect of such a System of Support working to heal trauma and to build resilience is a trauma-informed learning environment. Emerging Trauma-Informed Design patterns can give back a sense of empowerment to those experiencing trauma so that they can become agents of their own wellness under the wings of caring adults and the System of Support at large. When stakeholders, educators and counselors come together to perform the important work of communicating their joint vision to the teams engaged in designing their learning environments, the outcome is trauma-informed spaces and built environments that are aligned with their vision of healing and reliance. An interdisciplinary plenary panel will guide participants through a live workshop to demonstrate techniques to engage stakeholders and design teams in a Trauma-Informed Design Charrette.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the concepts of trauma-informed care and trauma-informed design.
- Learn about why a system of support working towards resilience and healing from trauma is the need of the hour in our education system nation-wide.
- Receive an overview of the Trauma-Informed Design Workbook.
- By participating in a live workshop, participants will learn about frameworks and techniques to engage stakeholders in a Trauma-Informed Design Charrette.
Deepa Bharatkumar Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD+C, CDT, Architect, Bassetti Architects
As an architect at Bassetti Architects in Portland, OR Deepa is an advocate for listening to student, teacher, and district voices, to create spaces that address the needs of the individual and help create equity within our educational environments. Her design approach incorporates trauma-informed design principles to ensure that our schools are safe, supportive spaces for our most vulnerable children.
Audrey Gomez Assoc. AIA, Designer, Bassetti Architects
A collaborative and organized architect, Audrey brings reliability, attentive and accurate responses to project needs, strong communication skills, and a detail-oriented review of all deliverables to her projects. Audrey is a builder, using her deep knowledge of the practice to advance projects as well as her sense of humor to build relationships with team members and project stakeholders.
Victoria Bergsagel, REFP, Founder, Architects of Achievement
Victoria is an educator passionate about designing schools where all students achieve. She founded and directs Architects of Achievement and has a gift for nurturing people’s talents and insights to arrive at inspired solutions. She has been a teacher, counselor, principal, adjunct professor, community relations director, and school district administrator. As director of educational partnerships at a brain research institute, she worked with an interdisciplinary team to conduct and integrate the world’s leading brain research.
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| Nature as a Path to Learning and Place – The Blakely Elementary School |
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Fuji 3-4
Presentation »
Blakely Elementary School, the 2021 A4LE MacConnell award winner, is a 400 student K-4 replacement school for the Bainbridge Island School district that grew out of a community vision for a school unique to their site and community. A vision evolved of a seamlessly integrated landscape of shared collaborative learning experiences that amplify strong student achievement and empower their ever -innovating teaching culture through the transformation of the school’s relationship with the surrounding mixed coniferous forest. The educational benefits of daylight and improved educational environments has been well documented. But as we raise the bar, what are the next levels of higher performing schools where children can connect to nature and bring biophilic geometries and indoor – outdoor design elements into learning environments? An engaged co-creating process with teachers was essential for the design process of the circulation framework and the relationship of classrooms to shared learning. Through workshops with teachers and staff, a design parti emerged that celebrated the rising topography of the site, centered learning communities within a framework for collaboration, created a quilt of indoor and outdoor experiences and connected sustainable performance with environmental education curriculum. Multiple sustainability strategies include all electric systems, geothermal wells, over 20,000 plants and extensive stormwater infrastructure for filtration and retention. Biophilic design strategies from natural design geometries, structural ‘whole trees’ and connections to exterior landscapes are core to the project design. In addition to the MacConnell the project has received honors including the A4LE LE Solutions, New Learning Environment Award, and was the winner of the A4LE 2021 Polished Apple Award. It has been published in Architectural Record and has received 2 AIA design awards.
Learning Objectives:
- Presentation will present detailed strategies for optimizing educational spaces for learning and community inclusion.
- Sustainability strategies for energy, natural ventilation, ground source geothermal and reduced embodied carbon will be reviewed.
- Landscape integration for biodiversity, stormwater treatment and retention will be presented.
- Technical integration of Structural ‘Whole Tree’ columns.
Richard Franko, FAIA, Partner, Mithun
Rich brings experience in the design leadership of schools, children’s museums and environmental education centers to the core issues of creating learning environments. He has lectured internationally on integrated design strategies, for optimizing sustainable performance, learning potential and place based design. He leads the sustainability integration team at Mithun, and was the Design Partner leading the design of the Blakely Elementary School and the Louisiana Children’s Museum.
Christian Runge, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Mithun
Christian is a Landscape Architect bringing an ecosystem informed approach to the design of learning environments and cultural institutions. His recent work at the Louisiana Children’s Museum and the Blakely Elementary school highlight the importance of learning landscapes. Christian has presented on the topics of healthy built environments and ecological design at ASLA, AIA and Living Future conferences, and his work has been published in Landscape Architecture Magazine.
Tamela Van Winkle, Retired, Director of Facilities and Capital Projects, Previously at Bainbridge Island School District
This spot will be confirmed with Bainbridge Island School District. Alternate may include the superintendent or principal of the school. Tamela Van Winkle was the District leader during the design and construction of Blakely Elementary School. Tamela was the Director of Facilities and Capital Projects through the Bond process, Educational Specifications , Design and Completion of the School.
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| Looking Backward to Grow Forward Toward Our Vision |
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Gala 1-2
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” ~Maya Angelou As partners in the planning, design, and construction of educational environments, we are all called to do our best in service to the students and staff who inhabit the built environments we create. We all participate in cycles of continuous learning, carrying forward what works and changing practice to address what doesn’t work. Beyond our personal experiences and perspectives, what criteria are we using to evaluate how the built outcomes are working and not working? Where does this data come from? Who does it come from? How is it measured and collected? This learning seminar will use the Lake Washington School District’s Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) process as a case study to explore these questions. While POE’s generically describe the gathering of information to assess the performance of existing buildings, and as such are a well-documented practice, this case study looks deeply at their application to educational facilities and their necessary position within the cycle of continuous learning. POE’s have enormous, and often untapped potential to: build partnerships with the end users, align with the District’s Strategic Plan, impact changes to Educational Specifications, improve planning and design processes, and update District Standards. In this learning seminar, we will:
- Explain how to create a POE toolkit that centers the voice of the end user and calibrates data collection to the School District’s Strategic Plan.
- Demonstrate how to evaluate the built environment acting in service to, or getting in the way of, the end user experience.
- Describe how POE findings can be used to inform changes to Educational Specifications, planning and design processes, and district standards.
- Identify practices that make the POE process sustainable, resilient, and integral to the cycle of continuous learning and improvement.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the process of creating a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) toolkit that centers the voice of the end user and calibrates measurements to the School District’s Strategic Plan.
- Understand what it looks like to use a vision-aligned POE toolkit to evaluate how the built environment is acting in service to, or getting in the way of, the end user experience.
- Understand how POE findings can inform changes to Educational Specifications, planning and design processes, and district standards to drive better outcomes.
- Identify practices that make the POE process sustainable, resilient, and integral to the cycle of continuous learning and improvement.
Rebecca Hutchinson, AIA, Associate Principal, Mahlum
Becky’s work between Boston and Seattle has focused on educational clients and the ways in which our educational environments can act in service to a more sustainable, equitable, and just future. Becky is an Associate Principal at Mahlum and serves as a Project Manager and Team Leader in the K-12 studio. She holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is a registered architect in Massachusetts.
Laura DeGooyer, PMP, Capital Projects Manager, Lake Washington School District
Laura is a certified project management professional with over 15 years of experience in the construction industry. Her career has included construction and project management of over $1Billion of projects in water/wastewater, aviation, education, healthcare, and justice facilities in various roles as a general contractor, owner’s representative, and owner. She currently provides leadership and direction over a $500M capital levy program for the second largest school district in Washington State.
Alec Weintraub, Senior Project Manager, OAC Services, Inc.
With over 30 years of industry experience, Alec has provided owner’s representation and program management services from coast to coast. His experience spans industries that include aviation, hospitality, retail, healthcare, and education. Alec is a Program Manager for OAC Services and joined the Lake Washington School District as a senior project manager in 2017. Alec holds a masters in civil engineering from Statue University of New York and Bachelor’s in Architecture from University of Virginia.
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| Indigenous Schools – Past, Present, and Future |
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Gala 3-4
Indigenous schools in the USA, Canada, and other colonized lands in the “New World” have charted a frequently heartbreaking and devastating course through the lives of Indigenous peoples for centuries. To the peoples variously styled by now-dominant colonizing cultures as Indian, Native American/Canadian, Aboriginal, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, Alaska Native, or similar, these government-sponsored schools were designed to use education as vehicle for the destruction of Indigenous cultures, languages, and ways of life. The results of these imposed, inequitable, and unjust policies and practices are evident today: graduation rates the lowest of any demographic; incarceration, substance abuse, and fatal encounters with law enforcement the highest. Central to addressing these issues and widespread cultural appropriation through transformative healing practices are schools. This session will examine three models:
- The USA and Canadian Residential Boarding School systems as a devastating model for the harm caused to generations of Indigenous learners and communities that are only just beginning to be acknowledged by the dominant non-Indigenous society.
- Examples of contemporary Indigenous Schools in Washington, Oregon, and Alberta will be examined, with a discussion with the Indigenous leaders for a new school for the rural Frog Lake First Nation in northern Alberta.
- Indigenous learning practices and models. Concepts to be explored include experiential learning; cultural relevance in process, learning, and built form; community and generational involvement; outdoor and nature-based learning and learning environments.
Historically, western-based approaches were imposed. Recent reintroduction of traditional, culturally-relevant learning approaches and designs are helping indigenous communities restore their cultures and heal their people. Beyond the architecture, this session will incorporate Indigenous voices from communities in Washington, Oregon, and Alberta. These authentically diverse perspectives will help explore how traditional Indigenous approaches and attitudes towards learning can inform dominant colonizing cultures and mainstream educational thinking and design.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop awareness of how the legacy and trauma from historic practices continues to impact Indigenous survivors and communities today.
- Develop knowledge of the history of Indigenous residential boarding schools throughout North America and how they continue today.
- Develop understanding of current trends in the design and delivery of contemporary Indigenous schools.
- Develop understanding of opportunities for incorporating – into non-Indigenous schools – traditional and contemporary Indigenous approaches to learning – experiential, culture, community, interdisciplinary, nature-based.
Ross Parker, AIA ALEP Principal | co-chair, A4LE, JEDI Committee, IBI Group
Ross is an architect, accredited learning environment planner, and the Education Studio Lead for IBI Group in Seattle, WA. He has a passion for inclusive, culturally relevant experiential design of educational facilities connecting pedagogy to design to nature. His 3-decade architectural portfolio spans from northern Canada, the UK, the US West Coast, and US South. It includes three James D. MacConnell Awards projects – 2010 recipient and 2004 and 2020 finalists. He is currently co-chair A4LE’s JEDI Committee.
Faye Strong, ALEP, Project Manager, Archiasmo Architectural Works
Faye is a learning environment planner and project manager with Archiasmo Architectural Works Ltd. in Cochrane, Alberta. Her education includes degrees in Architecture and Math from Dalhousie University and for the past seven years has focused on educational work to develop, design and project manage Indigenous Education Projects. Her vision is to see equitable learning environments established within Indigenous Communities. One of her most recent projects is a new high school and community library for the Frog Lake First Nations in northern Alberta.
Terri-Lynn Fox, PhD Director, Educator, Kainai Wellness Centre and Mount Royal University
Dr. Fox is a Sociologist, Director of Kainai Wellness Centre and Professor at Mount Royal University. Dr. Fox honours the spirit of victims and families, their survival, and the cultural resiliency of those traumatized by the Indian Residential Schools that operated into the 1990’s. Her graduate thesis Intergenerational Communication & Well-Being in Aboriginal Life addressed issues concerning lack of communication of traditional ways of knowing, teaching, and being due to colonization, assimilation, and segregation.
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| TUESDAY | JUNE 7, 2022 – 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM |
| Schools as “Game Changers” for Fostering Inclusion, Equity and Belonging |
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Fuji 1-2
How can the design of the learning environment engage a school district’s efforts to foster equity and inclusion? Federal Way Public Schools is Washington State’s most diverse school district. Their Vision for Excellence and Equity states, “We will engage in inclusionary practices to identify and eliminate the barriers that cause disproportionality.” The district leadership, the superintendent, and the board of directors had been learning collectively and implementing a strategic plan that addresses systemic challenges for their scholars. A new building for Olympic View K-8 was designed entirely during the restrictions of COVID-19 and heightened awareness of disproportionate challenges that it brought. Belonging and equity were prominent in the listening exercises the team conducted, and the design of a new building was a call to address them. The collaborative design process included teachers, families, and stakeholder groups like SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism) and the office of Equity for Scholar and Family Success. Tucked into a Pacific Northwest neighborhood rich with mature evergreens, the new Olympic View K-8 is envisioned as a multicultural hub with resources to foster community connections and fully meet the unique learning needs of each student. The design rethinks the daily experience of arrival with a secure, welcoming entry that connects visually to the main office as well as a Family Connection Center. The playground is reimagined as a park, delivering immersive outdoor learning during the day while providing missing neighborhood amenities for community use after hours. Personalized learning design features provide opportunities for self-expression, reflection, and representation for a population with 86% students of color. Designed with age-appropriate environments for grades K-8, the biophilic design advances the district’s sustainability goals with special attention given to scholar and teacher wellbeing. Nature is literally brought inside with natural finishes, abundant daylight, and a Whole Child Tree. Hear from extraordinary educational leaders about their experiences of improving opportunities for students of color and other marginalized communities. The presenters include members of the design team, the director of capital projects (himself an educator) and the Superintendent who championed equity for Federal Way Public Schools’ scholars and their families. We will share our learning about how inequity is manifest in the learning environment and the institution of school. We will share our exploration of how a school can play a meaningful role in creating a cohesive and safe neighborhood, and transformational experiences for scholars. We will reserve time in the session for a conversation about how the design of schools, and the process of design, can make a difference.
Learning Objectives:
- Hear how school district leadership creates a culture to change systemic barriers to opportunity and inclusion.
- Explore aspects of the built environment that foster a sense of inclusion and belonging by providing opportunities for self-expression and celebration of diversity.
- Understand how environmental responsibility and biophilia bring wellness and healing for the whole child.
- Discover ways schools can act as neighborhood parks to improve general livability and access to nature.
Dr. Tammy Campbell, Ed.D, CEO, The Scholar First
Dr. Tammy Campbell, Ed.D. is the former superintendent of Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) in Washington. FWPS is the most diverse district in the state and serves more than 23,000 students in 37 schools. Dr. Campbell led the district in increasing overall graduation rates and rates for students of color. Growing up in the Louisiana Delta during a time of de facto segregation, Dr. Campbell became convinced that schools can be “game changers” for students and communities.
Michael Swartz, Executive Director of Capital Projects, Federal Way Public Schools
Michael is leading a $450M capital program that replaces 8 schools and the district’s Memorial Stadium. He has a relatively unique background for an Executive Director of Capital Projects, previously serving as Principal of Wildwood Elementary and as an educator before that. He brings a sensitivity that inspires design teams and guides the inclusion of stakeholders across the district in ways that have meaningful impact on the schools being built through his leadership.
Aaron Winston, Director of Design, McGranahan Architects
Aaron is McGranahan’s Director of Design. He approaches his role with a strong desire for collaboration between the owner and design teams. Aaron is driven by the creative aspects of design, especially those which involve helping the community enjoy participating in a process of imagining places where people can connect. Working with the community helps Aaron to understand the diversity of challenges and goals of those who will learn, play and work at the places being created.
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| Connected Learning: Is It Working to Learn Outdoors? Post Occupancy Evaluation on Outdoor Classrooms |
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Fuji 3-4
Outdoor classrooms aren’t new, but still are unique and not all schools have included them. They are being proposed in many of our schools though their efficacy has not been well studied. Design guidelines exist but are relatively new and are more focused on retrofitting existing sites. One of the social justice issues of concern is that efforts to create successful outdoor classrooms appear to hinge on the support and maintenance by community and parent groups. Will we leave those schools that don’t have that support without these learning environments? How do we include them in the designs for our Title 1 schools at the educational specification phase? The expressed concerns that have limited wholesale adoption includes the fear they will fall into disuse due to lack of use by teachers, teachers not knowing how to use them, no sense of ownership or control over the spaces, accessibility, and visibility. The design of Madrona K8 in the Edmonds School District had a design goal to solve those problems by providing nearly every classroom with their own outdoor learning space. Did it work? Did the teachers take ownership of their spaces outdoors? Do they treat it as a learning space? Do they integrate it into their lesson plans? We will present Post-Occupancy Evaluation findings that gathered data to test design assumptions and teacher perceptions. The POE is being supported by a grant from the Landscape Architecture Foundation and is being monitored with interest by OSPI’s office of Environmental and Sustainability Education. A brief description of the findings will be followed with a panel discussion of the impacts and how Washington State’s OSPI may be able use the data, how designers can improve designs and educational specifications, and how a school district addresses the maintenance concerns.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how learning in nature improves learning and benefits the social and emotional wellbeing of teachers and students
- Learn how the connections between indoor and outdoor learning can improve the connections to nature for teachers and their students and positively impact their awareness of nature
- Learn how to design outdoor classrooms that can achieve support from district operations and maintenance.
- Learn how to design outdoor classrooms that increase their use by teacher.
Kas Kinkead, FASLA, Principal, Landscape Architecture/Urban Design Group, Osborn Consulting
For the past 30 years, Kas has focused on educational facilities and has developed standards for site development that achieve resource management and sustainability goals. As the Principal-in-Charge of educational facility design and planning of Osborn Consulting’s Landscape and Urban Design Group, Kas brings programmatic depth to site design, focused on using the site as a learning tool by utilizing research about learning styles, developmental patterns, brain research, current curriculum approaches, and learning modalities
Lauren Iversen, Landscape Designer, Osborn Consulting
Lauren’s work as a landscape designer and educator focuses on increasing children’s access to nature. While teaching in a Title I elementary school, she won grants from local and national agencies to provide students outdoor learning experiences. As a landscape designer, she has completed case studies and designs to increase nature connections for communities. She is an alumni of ISU (BLA 2016), UNLV (M.ED 2018), and UW (MLA 2020), and a 2020 National Olmsted Scholar
Elizabeth Schmitz, Environmental and Sustainability Education Program Manager in Science, Environment, and Sustainability/Learning and Teaching, OSPI
Elizabeth is the Environmental and Sustainability Education Program Manager in Science, Environment, and Sustainability/Learning and Teaching at Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. In this role, she supports administration of Washington’s $10 million climate science professional development Proviso, ClimeTime. She also oversees implementation of the Washington Green Ribbon Schools program and Washington state’s Environmental and Sustainability K-12 Learning Standards. Elizabeth also has experience teaching at outdoor schools.
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| Sustainable Forest Sourcing for Sustainable Mass Timber Schools |
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Gala 1-2
Through a partnership between design, forestry, and material manufacturing, this presentation will focus on how to create the truly sustainable large-scale schools from a natural and local material: wood. The speakers will walk participants through forest restoration and forest health treatments in eastern Washington Forests and how this process can both provide a renewable material for building flexible, multi-story schools, as well as restoring the ecology of our landscapes and preventing forest fires. Sustainably sources lumber can be used to create a variety of mass timber building components. Learn how mass timber can be harnessed to create adaptable, beautiful, and cost-effective learning environments. Forestry and design examples will include USDA funded research as well and built examples of mass timber schools. Key aspects of mass timber for educational spaces will be covered, including design flexibility, embodied carbon, indoor environmental quality, acoustics, mechanical distribution, structural framing, specifying, constructability, and cost. At the heart of this session is a demonstration that the use of natural, carbon sequestering materials can offer a broad benefit for climate health, as well as the health of building occupants and our communities. What’s more, taking a holistic view of construction and cost shows mass timber can compete economically with other standard building materials. Schools of the future will be net carbon neutral and capable of supporting all learners, and this session will highlight a compelling path for this needed change.
- Understand Forest resource management, sourcing and specifying sustainable mass timber materials in the Pacific Northwest.
- Investigate how mass timber structural systems can reduce the embodied carbon impacts of building materials, while opening the door to a healthier interior learning environment through biophilia and other natural methods.
- Identify building code pathways for use of mass timber in K-12 buildings and integration of services and structure within architectural spaces that maximize health, well-being and connection to nature.
- Explore cost and constructability issues related to mass timber K-12 schools, including scheduling, coordination with mass timber manufacturers, procurement, prefabrication, erection and moisture management strategies.
Joseph Mayo, Associate, Mahlum
Joe is an architect in Seattle at Mahlum, co-chair of the AIA Seattle Mass Timber Committee, and author of the book Solid Wood: Mass Timber Architecture, Technology and Design. He has completed a half dozen mass timber academic buildings in Washington, as well as two mass timber federally funded grant projects. He worked with AIA WA Council and non-profit Forterra to successfully change Washington State Building Codes to allow greater use of mass timber.
Russ Vaagen, CEO, Vaagen Timbers
As CEO of Vaagen Timbers in Coleville, WA, Russ has a deep knowledge of how mass timber is sourced, manufactured, designed, transported and built. Working with public, private and environmental groups, he is also a leading voice in forest restoration efforts, forest health and sustainable resource management. One of only two CLT manufacturers in Washington, Vaagen Timbers links Eastern and Western Washington together though material production, knowledge and advocacy, effectively connecting our forests and communities together.
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| Restoring ConnectEDness – Addressing the School to Prison Pipeline |
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Gala 3-4
In recent decades there has been an increasing intersection of public preK-12 schools with the juvenile and criminal justice systems involving increasing numbers of students pushed out of schools and into the justice system. This “dis-ConnectED” practice is known as the School-to-Prison-Pipeline (STPP), and it disproportionately affects students of color, LGBTQ+, and those with challenges of cognition, emotion, physicality, poverty, trauma, abuse, or neglect. Once a student is expelled or put into the criminal justice system, future options for careers, higher education—or simply returning to school—disappear. When students are labeled “bad” or “deviant,” they become stigmatized and socialized to fit that role, and become more likely to drop out enter the justice system. This session will explore the underlying policies that create the STPP and practices to reverse it. Nationally recognized educator, consultant, and public speaker Erin Jones will provide deeper insights into the STPP, impacts on students, and how the system can be replaced or transformed into working for the best interests of all. Contributing factors – implicit bias, zero-tolerance/suspension/expulsion policies, police in schools, school disturbance laws, and how over-burdened staff increasingly respond to common misbehavior by removing students from school – will be explored. Youth advocate and attorney Rosey Thurman will lead a discussion on restorative justice practices, including a case study of Spokane Public Schools’ Family Community Engage Program, which worked to keep students in schools and create mutual understanding through harm reduction and inclusion. Deeper insights and specific examples will be provided by a former leader of that program. During the session, participants will break into small discussion groups to share their own insights and experiences, and to explore what restorative justice practices mean and how they impact the design of learning environment from operational, educational, and physical design perspectives.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop awareness of the current situation and policies that create and foster the school-to-prison pipeline and how it disproportionally affects students not fitting societal “norms” for the perfect student.
- Develop awareness of the impacts of students on pushing them out of the public school system and how it can have catastrophic impacts on students’ futures, their families, and society.
- Develop awareness of inclusive, harm-reducing practices such as Restorative Justice.
- Learn how the STPP Can be addressed and transformed through action of individuals, parents, and many professions who interact with the educational systems.
Erin Jones, Independent Education Systems Consultant and Author, Erin Jones LLC
Erin is a nationally-recognized educator, author, public speaker, and independent education and systems consultant who has been involved in and around schools for over 26 years. In 2016 she made history as the first Black woman to run for statewide elected office in Washington (for Superintendent of Public Instruction, which she narrowly lost). She has taught middle school, worked at the school district level, and served as an executive for State Superintendents of Public Instruction. She has two inspiring TEDx Talks, has recently published the book Bridges to Heal Us, and is an independent public speaker and an education and systems consultant.
Rosey Thurman, Lawyer and Youth Advocate, TeamChild
Rosey Thurman has been a longtime advocate and lawyer with TeamChild. She represented youth and their families in ensuring that they receive an education. She worked with the Spokane Communities of Color and Disability to found the Every Student Counts Alliance, seeking changes to systemic racism in Spokane schools and upholding the rights of disabled students.
Ross Parker, AIA, ALEP, Principal & A4LE JEDI Committee Co-Chair, IBI Group
Ross is the Education Studio Lead for IBI Group in Seattle. He has a passion for culturally relevant experiential design of educational facilities. His 3-decade architectural portfolio spans from northern Canada to the US West Coast and South, and includes three James D. MacConnell Awards projects – award recipient in 2010 and finalists in 2004 and 2020. As a parent of a student of color, he is devoted to ensuring the most equitable and inclusive life experiences – in school and beyond – for all students.
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| TUESDAY | JUNE 7, 2022 – 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM |
| Learning with the Land |
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Fuji 1-2
The Farm is an 8-acre agriculturally based STEM program that serves high school students in the Franklin Pierce School District near Tacoma, WA. The learning experiences at The Farm are “hands in the earth”, collaborative and community-oriented, providing another educational pathway for young adults. The Farm property includes wetlands, native restoration planting areas, 2 acres of vegetable gardens, a community garden, beehives, numerous greenhouses, a barn for students to wash and prepare produce for distribution, and a variety of outdoor learning settings. School staff partner with a local community organization, like Harvest Pierce County, to teach weekly adult farming classes and offer community planting beds. Each year students and volunteers grow 50,000 pounds of produce for the school district, students, and their families, school staff, and the Franklin Pierce community. At The Farm students, staff, community members, and volunteers all engage in learning activities in the fields, gardens, greenhouses, and the barn. While the primary functions of the school occur outdoors, it is important that there be a place for collective reflection and discovery; to support student learning from STEM classroom and lab settings. In 2021 the district received grant funding to create an Agriculture Resource Center (ARC) at The Farm. This ARC will offer a STEM classroom/meeting space, administration spaces, and agriculture lab to support the various learning experiences on The Farm. These new spaces will facilitate student understanding by allowing deeper research to occur. Soils can be brought in for analysis, plants can be dissected and studied, and observations can be made that will help inform choices needed to ensure healthy crop production. The symbiotic relationship of students flowing from outdoor observations and activity to indoor study and reflection and back out for implementation and experimentation support student led learning cycles of problem-seeking and problem-solving that define the Agricultural STEM experience. This presentation will focus on how the new ARC on The Farm at Franklin Pierce supports the students, both high school and adult, and the community at large by combining altruism and education. By reviewing ways students use the ARC to experience the joy of supporting their community through cultivating food, while engaging educational exploration through agricultural production, we will show the strength of tying STEM learning to tangible outcomes that benefit the community. Connections to community, connections to nature, connections to one another.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify key components of agricultural STEM schools.
- Understand how communities can benefit from agricultural STEM programs.
- Understand the symbiotic relationship between indoor and outdoor education at an agricultural STEM school.
- Learn how agricultural STEM programs support student health and wellbeing.
Benjamin Fields, McGranahan Architects
Ben is a Project Designer with McGranahan Architects in Tacoma, WA. Ben believes that investing in community builds value, both for the individual as well as the whole. Following that ethic, he continues to look for opportunities to contribute to groups and organizations he is a part of. Ben has been working in educational architecture since moving to Tacoma in 2008 and has been active in his state, regional, and national chapters of A4LE since 2013, serving in conference planning committees as well as on the WA state board. Ben is currently the past president of the Washington State Chapter, having served as president in 2019-2020, where he was faced with the challenges and uncertainties of Covid. In response to the pandemic, he helped develop and implement the chapter’s virtual tour and presentation format. Ben is currently working on his Accredited Learning Environment Planner (ALEP) designation through the Advanced Academy Certificate Program and is anticipating the successful completion of that process in June of 2022. Ben was recognized locally in 2017 as a promising young professional by the South Sound Business Journal.
Robin Heinrichs, Executive Director of Support Services, Franklin Piece School District
Robin is the Executive Director of Support Services at Franklin Pierce School District. He has been with Franklin Pierce since 2012. Robin has responsibility for the district’s operations, maintenance, nutrition services and transportation programs. He also heads up Franklin Pierce’s capital construction program. Robin’s early upbringing took place in Oregon’s Willamette valley and later in Latin America. Robin graduated with a degree in Natural Science with major course work in chemistry and biology from Fresno Pacific University where he also played soccer. He went on to enter a master’s program at the University of Minnesota in genetics and cell biology. Robin’s career pathway has taken some unexpected turns over the years. After marrying his college sweetheart, he moved to Kodiak, Alaska where he was self-employed as a general contractor providing design-build services for clients in that community while the couple raised their 4 children. In 1999 Robin took a job as Project Manager for a civilian contractor at the US Coast Guard Base in Kodiak providing public works and municipal services ranging from operation of industrial utility plants to maintenance of 1,800,000 SF of facilities and management of over 21,000 acres of government property. Robin later became involved as a Program Manager managing private sector construction contracts working for the Department of Defense (DOD) throughout the US. He oversaw construction of over $360M in DOD projects from 2006 to 2010. Robin enjoys spending time with his family including his six grandchildren. He enjoys family activities, working in his yard, and attending collector car shows.
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| Integrating Habitat and Culture into Practice: The Place Initiative |
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Fuji 3-4
Presentation »
Can cities be catalysts for integrating and bolstering endemic habitats? How can we include habitat restoration in the basicscope of our projects? This session will provide insights into the value of habitat integration in built projects as well as tools to use in your current ongoing projects.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand that habitat maintenance and restoration is a critical component of environmental stewardship.
- Understand ways to tap into a location's specific cultural and environmental resources.
- Provide examples of tools that can be developed and used on built projects relating to endemic habitat, indigenous culture, and history.
- Learn about tools that can assist with documentation of LEED v4.1 BD+C Site Assessment credit.
Kaeli Nolte, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, LFA, Architect, Bassetti Architects
Kaeli was Garden Coordinator at the Center for the Advancement for Sustainable Living where she co-instructed permaculture design classes. This experience taught her how to use the site as an educational tool, integrate building systems into their surrounding environment, and meet rigorous sustainable design. Kaeli is a participant of Bassetti's Grant Research program where she developed The Place Initiative - a resource that provides insights into the value of habitat integration in built space.
Kristian Kicinski, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Associate Principal/Director of Sustainability, Bassetti Architects
As Director of Sustainability, Kristian leads the firm’s work to advance high-performance design. For almost two decades, Kristian’s work at Bassetti Architects has focused on the intersection of educational design and sustainable strategies, creating the healthiest, highest-performing learning environments for teachers and students.
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| Learning Empathy, Naturally – The Role of Nature in Providing More Effective, Healthier, and Connected Learning Environments |
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Gala 3-4
What is empathy and what is its role in learning? Why is it important to life, learning, and our role on the planet? How can nature support the learning of empathy? How can we design physical learning environments with empathy, to support empathy, and to learn empathy? In recent decades, the importance of social-emotional learning has become recognized for its role in cognitive development by brain researchers, psychologists, and educators. Social-emotional learning is now an important component of many learning environments from pre-school through high school. There has been significant focus on the Social aspects – “learning is social”, “humans are social beings”. To explore the Emotional component, this session will go beyond the avoidance of negative emotions triggered by stress and trauma; it will examine the role of positive emotions in learning and how the physical learning environment can support them, with a particular focus on empathy. Empathy is a skill by which people can understand and experience another’s emotions. It has become to be understood as a vital component in the development of humans and societies. While most are born with this capability, it can also be taught and strengthened. It can provide near-immediate connection on a much deeper level than other forms of communication. As a pathway to generating compassion, empathic connections and thinking can foster healthy interactions with other living entities – humans, animals, and plants. This session will explore case studies of recent school designs intended to support the learning of empathy through environmental connection – with physical, metaphorical, and educational connections to the natural environment. Outdoor learning environments are increasingly recognized as important components for holistic learning – for science, art, and multiple forms of experiential learning. Examples will highlight outdoor structures, places, activities, and linkages across a broad spectrum.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop awareness and understanding of empathy and its role in connecting people and societies.
- Develop understanding of the importance of empathy in learning, how empathy can be taught, and how learning environments can incorporate and support such teachings.
- Develop understanding of the role of outdoor learning and nature-based learning environments have in providing deeper and relevant academic and social emotional learning.
- Learn about the role of outdoor and nature-based learning environments and how they can foster empathic relationships amongst humans, by humans towards nature, and how design can support both.
Ross Parker, AIA, ALEP, Principal | co-chair, A4LE JEDI Committee, IBI Group
Ross has a passion for inclusive, culturally relevant, experiential design of educational facilities that connect pedagogy to design and to nature. His 3-decade architectural portfolio spans from northern Canada, the UK, the US West Coast, and US South. It includes three James D. MacConnell Awards projects – 2010 recipient, 2004 finalist, and 2020 finalist Mary Lyon Elementary School in Tacoma. He is currently co-chair A4LE’s JEDI Committee.
Anita Roth, Principal at Edison Elementary School, Tacoma Public Schools
Anita’s 37 years in the field of education have provided her multiple opportunities to try on different faucets of the field. She has served as a Special Education teacher, Instructional Facilitator and Literacy Curriculum Specialist. Anita has spent the last 13 years as a building principal. In this role she collaborated with her design team to craft an amazing learning environment at 2020 MacConnell Award finalist Mary Lyon Elementary in Tacoma, Washington.
Kas Kinkead, FASLA, Landscape Architect and Principal, Osborn Consulting
Kas has focused her 30-year career on educational facilities contributing to standards for site development that achieve sustainability goals, and site programming that supports learning and child development. As the Principal-in-Charge of educational facility design and planning of Osborn Consulting’s Landscape and Urban Design Group, Kas’s work creates learning environments based in research grounded in childhood development, brain research, curriculum, and learning modalities.
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| Mass Timber Schools: Building for Wellness |
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Gala 1-2
Presentation »
Student engagement is essential to positively impact education. Research on the biophilic influences of wood in interior environments has proven that connection to natural materials increases productivity, reduces stress, and improves overall well-being—all core tenets behind positive student engagement. This session will explore two new research studies that demonstrate improved learning by maximizing the physiological and psychological benefits of biophilia in K-12 schools. University of Washington ARC Research Fellow, Noor Awad, will share findings from inquiry she is leading into the question: How can mass timber support children’s development, curriculum, learning outcomes, long term student success and student resiliency? Her study “School as Living Laboratory” makes the claim that elementary schools should use design strategies informed by concepts in biophilia, with a focus on mass timber, to intentionally address the health and wellbeing of students as well as learning outcomes. Through secondary sources and surveys to learners from five schools that utilize mass timber in their existing design, this research helps draw connections between mass timber and benefits to student’s ability to learn and resilience during stress events. Well-designed modern schools maximize adaptability, providing agile learning spaces that accommodate a variety of evolving learning models and teaching pedagogies over time. The Mithun R+D study “Building Better Schools, sought to expand current understanding of the links between learning space design and student engagement, excitement, focus and stress. The team took an iterative approach driven by an optimized three-ply mass timber structural grid and sectional framework that balances efficient timber fiber volumes with the need for agile spaces. The results demonstrate that mass timber spaces can be cost competitive for schools when compared to a steel-framed baseline—providing warm, well-daylit interiors with exposed mass timber columns, beams, ceilings, and walls that invoke biophilic responses and significantly reduce embodied carbon impacts.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the links between education space design and student engagement, excitement, learning, focus, and wellbeing.
- Explain how mass timber technology has the capacity to be cost competitive, meet construction schedules, and reduce embodied carbon.
- Describe how designing with mass timber technologies and a mass timber kit-of-parts can create agile and adaptable space for schools.
- Understand how mass timber construction invokes biophilic responses in learning environments by incorporating the physiological and psychological benefits of nature.
JoAnn Wilcox, AIA, Principal, Mithun
JoAnn combines sensitive listening and agile problem-solving skills to craft innovative and rigorous learning environments that influence national education design and has been recognized with more than 60 awards for design excellence. Her practice is focused on design for life-long learning with a specialty in K12, collaborating closely with students and educators to co-create learning environments that amplify curriculum, maximize resources, foster community belonging, strengthen student agency and uplift learning outcomes.
Noor Awad, UW ARC Research Fellow, University of Washington
Noor is a Master of Architecture candidate and Research Fellow at the University of Washington, where she is leading inquiry into the question: How can mass timber support children’s development, curriculum, learning outcomes, long term student success and student resiliency? Her study “School as Living Laboratory” focuses on design strategies informed by concepts in biophilia, with a focus on mass timber, to intentionally address the health and wellbeing of students as well as learning outcomes.
Rachel Himes, Associate Mithun
Rachel focuses her practice on leading design using sustainable and innovative building technologies to achieve equitable and healthy communities. With background in prefabrication, she has presented locally and nationally on mass timber construction methodologies. She is an advocate for achieving aspirational buildings by designing with prefabrication principles and sustainable materials to reduce carbon footprint. She leads R+D efforts around mass timber optimization for commercial and K-12 education applications to propel the industry towards carbon neutrality.
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