Places to Learn
We emphasize integration, inclusion, and collaboration in our educational planning and design process. This emphasis expands the traditional education specifications approach by enlarging the scope of the process.
Keys to our process include:
- Bringing goals related to the interplay of community, family, and work into the Learning Specification framework.
- Shifting the primary focus from the educators to the learners.
- Looking at the connections among and between the various school disciplines before the looking at the disciplines themselves.
- Avoiding ‘one-size fits all’ solutions by tailoring the design to the ‘local situation’, the individual school community’s unique assets, challenges, opportunities and goals.
Selected Projects
- OHIO SCHOOL FACILITIES COMMISSION
State-wide building assessments - THOMAS MORE COLLEGE
N. KENTUCKY
Entrance studies - UC CHILDCARE
CINCINNATI, OH
New children's facility - OAK HILLS SCHOOLS
CINCINNATI, OH
Window replacement and renovations - FOUR COUNTY CAREER CENTER
Master planning services - UC CLERMONT COLLEGE
BATAVIA, OH
Two new services facilities - VILLA MADONNA ACADEMY
New athletic facility and rehab - PATRICK HENRY MIDDLE SCHOOL
New 57,000 sf middle school - GREENACRES ART CENTER
INDIAN HILL, OH
Educational facility historic rehab
Featured Project: Greenacres Art Center
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Client: Carter Randolph, PhD; Executive Director
Project Highlights: Built in 1929, this English Tudor mansion is constructed of local field stone and a unique blend of New York slate shakes, brick chimneys and interior walls with sculpted limestone ornamentation. Restored to its original grandeur the landmark structure’s grand salon has carved stone mantle weighing over two tons, walnut floors and moldings and a 22’ tall cathedral window overlooking the 200 acre estate. The winding main stairway is carved travertine marble, and the entry hall and adjacent formal dining salon are floored in travertine with verdigris marble. The Lower level is home to a 2000 square foot ballroom, indoor swimming pool and newly incorporated accessible restroom facilities. The building infrastructure has been updated to the 21st century with high efficiency systems and integral audio-visual, communications, wireless networking and alarm systems in every public space. All work was sensitively completed in accordance with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
Recipient of the 2008 State Preservation Award
Featured Project: Roselawn Condon School
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Client: Cincinnati Public Schools
Project Highlights: Renovation of the 108,000 square foot Roselawn Condon Magnet School for orthopedically and mentally disabled children was completed without closing the school or necessitating off site displacement of the student body. Funded by the Cincinnati Public School District with assistance from the Ohio School Facility Commission (OSFC), the project replaced the building’s aging mechanical systems while improving building envelope performance. Complete new life safety, information technology systems and audio / visual systems were added along with new finishes, casework, and furnishings. To maximize the facility’s service to the specialized student body needs, the surrounding site was reconfigured with improved traffic separation and protected recreation areas.
Featured Project: South Avondale School
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Client: Cincinnati Public Schools
Project Highlights:The new 84,000 square foot South Avondale Elementary School replaced a deteriorating collage of blended school structures ranging from temporary classrooms to the remnants of a 1918 three story structure with a 1980’s one story addition.
The new facility is constructed to meet Ohio Schools Facility Commission (OSFC) criteria and functions as a pre-K through 8 learning center for the Cincinnati Public School District. The facility also houses a Neighborhood Health Center and offers youth sports activities, both accessible to the neighborhood community.
"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."
-Thurgood Marshall