Edutopia - April/May 2008 - (Page 30)

Polaris School Anchorage, Alaska Design Team: McCool Carlson Green Architects Grades: K–12, 500 students Completed: 2005 Facing a tight budget, the administrators of this alternative learning facility took an imaginative leap and acquired a two-screen movie theater in a former wetlands area near a freeway and industrial zone. Following an initial renovation of the existing building’s unusual interior shapes, the school embarked on an addition that included a gymnasium, a library, new classrooms, and an impressive double-height lobby. Recognizing Alaska’s cultural traditions, the architects included what the school calls a “ceremonial hearth,” giving the learning community a central gathering place for celebrations and meetings. In addition, with the state’s special conditions in mind, most classrooms were placed to make the best use of solar exposure, even on the very short days of the far northern winter. The school is built around the concepts of self-direction and student-to-student learning, and the architects took advantage of the original design, a purpose-built structure intended for an entirely different purpose, to give Polaris a feeling of uniqueness, surprise, and ⇓exibility. Because the school includes a wide range of ages and thirteen grade levels, primary and intermediate classrooms are organized in threes, creating shared alcoves for small groups to meet and what DesignShare calls “a place for each small learning group to express itself.” Student ownership of their space began with sweat equity during the renovation process, and continues with high-energy student murals both inside and outside the building. A system of replaceable interior wall panels lets the art change and evolve from one part of the building to another. The DesignShare judges lauded the “rich variety of spaces—soft and hard, DESIGN FOR LEARNING open and niche-like, colorful For more about award-winning schools, go to and neutral, bright and quiwww.edutopia.org/designshare-awards-2008 etly calm.” Daily Variety: DesignShare praises the Polaris School, built by renovating and adding to a former movie theater, for its “rich variety of spaces” and its capacity for renewal and change. 30 EDUTOPIA APRIL/MAY 2008 http://www.edutopia.org/designshare-awards-2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - April 2008

Edutopia - April 2008 Contents Up Front Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of the Class Cool Schools Design Reinventing the Big test The Daring Dozen Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Jack Prelutsky

Edutopia - April 2008

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