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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1954 LIFE Magazine Article.......... w W? 46 Oe6l? n9 ..... . A N D N OX - 31SON illifliv SO PIEC66Y —PIECE SCHOOLS, A 'LIFE' PLAN TO RELIEVE CA0' . N �r, a� F7 � 20 CENTS BRIIARY I 1951 } -tom - The step -by -step enlargement of an elementary school, as projected (above) by Texas Architects Caudill, Rowlett, Scott and Associates, makes use of existing school plant. Around it, plan calls for building of successive class units in order shown by numbers below. Each unit has four rooms, is connected by covered walkways or corridors to administrative and service building. Play shed may be us °d as regular gymnasium or auditorium. Details of this plan are on pages 78 -79. 2� NEW SCHOOLS, Two LIFE— commissioned plans show Faced with ever rising enrollments, rapidly aging facilities and insistent- ly mounting costs of new construction, school authorities are confronted with the most burdensome shortage of schoolrooms in U.S. history. The 50,000 rooms built last year made only a small dent in the shortage and, year by year, school people are losing ground. In an effort to meet 1954's critical shortage, estimated by the U.S. Office of Education to be at least 345,000 rooms, and to avert some of the pile -up of the years ahead, LIFE here presents two drastically new but eminently workable designs for new schools. The designs propose a method by which school boards am - where can, according to local conditions, build —and pay for — necessary school facilities, piece by piece. More widely, perhaps, they also offer communities with heavy investments in existing schools a way not only to avoid scrapping their present plants but actually of increasing their usefulness and long -range desirability. One of the plans is for an elementary school (top, left), the other for a junior high school (top, right). Each takes a basic educational concept and around it creates a unique plant. In each plan are elements which, singly, are a part of modern architecture. But each also represents a 74 GUIDE TO AN EASY -TO -BUILD GRADE SCHOOL qi 1' _ylii t 11 _ PSI ADMINISTRATION UNIT AL 040d �k �r ,�1t< ECONOMY T00 a way to relieve crowded classrooms dramatic new arrangement of a plant's total facilities and, further, makes it possible to use these new units in conjunction with existing schools. To design these plants, LIFE commissioned two leading firms of school architects, Perkins & Will of Chicago, III. and White Plains, N.Y., and Caudill, Rowlett, Scott and Associates of Bryan, Texas and Oklahoma City, Okla. In the last five years these firms between them have designed 204 new schools, some of them representing the most advanced princi- ples of educational design and all of them complete departures from the traditional, multistoried, heavy - walled structures of the past. The shortage which their plans are intended to relieve finds 60% of the nation's 900,000 public school classrooms jammed up, serving more than the absolute maximum of 30 pupils that can be profitably taught at one time. Of the public school enrollment of 28 million children, more than 9 million are thus packed in. One youngster in every five, more- over, is in a school that does not even meet minimum safety standards. On these pages is a detailed outline of what a community can get in the way of modern school facilities, quickly and economically, to give U.S. schoolchildren the kind of facilities they need and should have. RVI,® GUIDE TO AN EXPANDED JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Expansip of an existing junior high school building is depicted (above) by White Plains Architects Perkins & Will in the suggested sequence indicated be- low. Clagsroom unit incorporates dome- topped theater -in -round called a kiva, and domestic, science and other vocational shops in a centrally located compact area. This plan, like that for the elementary school, also can be applied in setting up of nE school by stages where none yet exists. Details are on pages 76-77. 0006L,- :. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 75 t PIECE -BY -PIECE SCHOOLS CONTINUED JUNIOR HIGH LAYOUT JOINS WORKSHOPS, STUDY ROOMS Along with expanding enrollments, the school space shortage is c4rn- pounded by the shift in teaching methods from the copybook routing of the past to a system of learning -by- doing. In 20 years this new emphasis has doubled the minimum amount of floor space each pupil requires. The junior high school shown here makes most of this additional space avail- able by exploiting otherwise educationally useless hallways. In a tradi. tional school 12- foot -wide hallways take tip about 25% of total floor space. Here, the passageways are reduced in width and the rest of the space is made a part of the open central corridor that is set up for shop work. Depending upon local conditions, this classroom unit can be built for about $225,000. A traditionally designed building with the same amount of teaching space would cost about $300,000. This plan, like that for the grade school, presumes that there is enough ground around the original school to permit such expansion. It can be easily modified to eliminate the auditorium or gymnasium buildings where these facilities already exist. THE KIVA, patterned after the ritual huts of the Pueblo Indians, is a cirl :, space enclosed by painted concrete blocks where recitals, plays and assemblies can be put on. With folding walls guided by tracks along the ceiling, it ca be divided into three separate work areas, or it can be opened up wide, as atove. INSIDE A CLASSROOM, emphasis is on maximum daylight and feeling of open- ness. Exterior wails are mostly of glass, ceiling is patterned with plastic skylights and partitions are topped by glass panels or left open at top. Separating rooln and corridor is wall (left) which may be used for shelves, cupboards or bookcases. '. CLASSROOM UNIT of the junior high school ranges classrooms along the outer walls. They all open into a large central corridor space where manual training shops are set up (as below). At one end of the central corridor is a circular kiva which is designed architecturally to contrast xcith flat lines of rest of the unit. CENTRAL CORRIDOR of classroom building permits easy circulation of stu- dents without costly wall divisions, is designed also to enable students to work on vocational and extracurricular projects in close conjunction with studies. Stu- dents can move directly from classrooms (left) to kiva (rear) or to such workshop 76 - 4 , ll� r� . f . VIII M 11 II11111111111111 N1.I illy1191 1 10111iG1111,;,. - *-, activities as woodworking, art, mechanical drawing and domestic sciences. The sliding door cabinets, which are used for storage of equipment, and panels above them are treated acoustically to reduce noise. Safety of students using polder equipment in this area is safeguarded by master switch under control of teacher. INSIDE GYMNASIUM basketball teams can play on the regulation court which runs lengthwise with the window wall. Basket under which boys scrimmage is on a backboard lowered from ceiling. On folding wall (right), which here partly closes olf one of end sections, a removable basket is hung for practice purposes. FACING THE COURTYARD of the expanded plant from just beyond the wall of the classroom building's kiva (right, foreground) gives a view of covered walk- ways which connect old school building (through window, right) to all new units, and of court which can be used for outdoor assemblies and commencements. GYMNASIUM UNIT eliminates costly balcony and fixed seats. The floor may be divided with folding partitions into four main areas, with practice basketball courts in center where sloping roof is highest. For actual competitive games, two center sections are opened up to make full -sized basketball court (lined in green). AUDITORIUM UNIT, unlike more intimate kiva of classroom building, is lame enough to house entire enrollment for schoolwide programs. Adjoining music rooms (1e t), whose angled walls are intended to convey informality, provide spa,e for practice sessions and recitals, and also can be used for movies and television. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 77 PIECE -BY -PIECE SCHOOLS CONTINUED ELEMENTARY PLAN DEVELOPS 'VILLAGE' OF SIMILAR UNITS The units of the elementary school shown here are both smaller and cheaper to build than those of the junior high, and the reasons for this are financially and educationally sound. It is in the lower grades where today's enrollment crush is greatest. But most communities find it diffi- cult to get an adequate bond issue approved to finance a .whole new school at once. A four -room class unit, almost entirely self - contained, like that at left, can be built for about $12,000 a classroom —less than half the cost of old- fashioned classrooms. Provided there is enough ground, the number of such classroom units need not be limited. This piece -by -piece arrangement, in addition to being financially at- tractive, reflects an architectural awareness that a child's total develop- ment— intellectual, physical, social and emotional —is essentially shaped in the first school years. Since the individual's needs may go unde- tected in a crowd, this school deliberately breaks down mass enrollments into smaller groups, which exist in a village of schools within schools. 78 CLASSROOM UNIT is essentially a square, divided by folding walls intu lour rooms around, economically concentrated heating and plumbing facilities. Be- cause there are no corridors, usable space of each room (see belou?) is almost double what older -type construction permits in building of same overall size. INSIDE A CLASSROOM which looks out onto its own "yard," work space is on maps and art work. The teacher stands at removable multiple -use space divider two levels. Neither desks nor chairs are fixed to the floor and either level can be which is both a wall between rooms and a combination mounting surface, peg - used for classwide programs or small group activity. Wall space between the two board and tackboard. A quadruplex unit uses own rooms as dining space, being IeveIs can be used for built -in storage cabinets or as a vertical surface for hanging served by portable steam tables wheeled in from service unit (opposite page, top). / i i ELEMENTARY PLAN DEVELOPS 'VILLAGE' OF SIMILAR UNITS The units of the elementary school shown here are both smaller and cheaper to build than those of the junior high, and the reasons for this are financially and educationally sound. It is in the lower grades where today's enrollment crush is greatest. But most communities find it diffi- cult to get an adequate bond issue approved to finance a .whole new school at once. A four -room class unit, almost entirely self - contained, like that at left, can be built for about $12,000 a classroom —less than half the cost of old- fashioned classrooms. Provided there is enough ground, the number of such classroom units need not be limited. This piece -by -piece arrangement, in addition to being financially at- tractive, reflects an architectural awareness that a child's total develop- ment— intellectual, physical, social and emotional —is essentially shaped in the first school years. Since the individual's needs may go unde- tected in a crowd, this school deliberately breaks down mass enrollments into smaller groups, which exist in a village of schools within schools. 78 CLASSROOM UNIT is essentially a square, divided by folding walls intu lour rooms around, economically concentrated heating and plumbing facilities. Be- cause there are no corridors, usable space of each room (see belou?) is almost double what older -type construction permits in building of same overall size. INSIDE A CLASSROOM which looks out onto its own "yard," work space is on maps and art work. The teacher stands at removable multiple -use space divider two levels. Neither desks nor chairs are fixed to the floor and either level can be which is both a wall between rooms and a combination mounting surface, peg - used for classwide programs or small group activity. Wall space between the two board and tackboard. A quadruplex unit uses own rooms as dining space, being IeveIs can be used for built -in storage cabinets or as a vertical surface for hanging served by portable steam tables wheeled in from service unit (opposite page, top). III INSIDE COMMONS ROOM furnishings include TV set for expected advance in educational telecasts. Room may be used for small civic meetings, for parent - teacher conferences or as reception room. For this purpose, refreshments are pre- pared in nearby kitchen, and folding wall to teachers' lounge (left) can he opened. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 79 SERVICE AND OFFICE UNIT, in exterior design similar to classroom unit but on a single level, provides office space for the principal and administrative staff, nurse's quarters, kitchen, food storage area, a teachers' lounge and a commons room. Every room has an outside vie%,. The walls between are all prefabricated. INSIDE THE PLAY SHED, where exposed steel framing and rough finish permit meetings and commencement programs. In warm climates, as in flu• South and economies not feasible in the usual gymnasium- auditoriums, the concrete floor Southwest, the shed need only be roofed over to protect against rani and heat. is marked off both for games ordinarily played outdoors, like shuffleboard, and In colder areas, ends of the shed can be fully enclosed and heating units sus - indoors, like basketball. The shed also can be used for school dances, large group pended from ceiling. Circles in the ceiling are plastic bubbles for extra lighting. PIECE -BY -PIECE SCHOOLS CONTINUED HEADACHE NEURMS NEURAIG /A get A ff-AEf WITH The way ^FJ thousands of physicians and dentists recommend Here's Why ... Anacin is like a doctor's prescription. That is, Anacin contains not just one but a combination of medically proved active ingredients, No other product gives faster, longer - lasting relief from pain of headache, neu- ralgia, neuritis than Anacin tablets. Buy Anacin® today! - - INGROWN NAIL Hurting You? Immediate Relief! A few drops of OUTGRO® bring blessed relief from tormenting pain of ingrown nail. OUTGRO tough- ens the skin underneath the nail, allows the nail to be cut and thus prevents further pain and discom- fort. OUTGRO Is available at all drug counters. WHERE THE PLAN IS IN USE The soundness of the add -a -unit type of construction is proved by the Darien, Conn. junior high school. In 1937 when the school opened, its 17 rooms were enough for 375 students. By 1951 the school's 500 students jammed the plant. Officials sought a way of solving current needs, at the same time making allowance for the future as well. The school below, as designed by Ketchum, Gina & Sharp, the school's architects, is the result. Its space was doubled, first by addition of classrooms, then by the multipurpose dining and activities section, and finally a new gym. The plant is now adequate for the present enrollment of 620 students and can be further enlarged if needed. The entire job was completed without the loss of a single class day. i I Best For Cooking And Baking Too! M t The Traveler's Friend NCB TRAVELERS CHECKS What a lifesaver National City Bank Travelers Checks are to travelers at home or abroad! Good as cash whether you are on a mountain top or in Main Street spend- able everywhere for everything. Promptly refunded, if lost or stolen. In convenient denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100 cost only 75¢ for each $100 purchased. Buy them at your bank. The best thing you know wherever you go NATIONAL CITY BANK TRAVELERS CHECKS Backed by The National City Bank of Neva York Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Millions of Americans get fast relief from Acid Indigestion, Heartburn WITH • Ask your grocer for the SUN -MAID 6 -PACK. Six pocket packages just right for between meal snacksl NOW FLAVOR - PROTECTED WITH CELLOPHANE TAKE I EM ON YOUR TRAVELS— ENERGY PACKED SUN-MAID RAISINS THE LINK between the original junior high and new additions (right) is this passageway which leads to the principal's office and to library in new wing. COMPLETED PLANT includes two new one -story classroom units (right), cafeteria and activities unit (center), gym (fnreground) and covers 22 acres. THE CONTRAST between old and new is indicated by traditional Georgian - type building (rear) and glass- walled cafeteria wing which looks onto play area.