CTA led the West Valley School community through a comprehensive educational planning effort. With a rising student population, aging facilities, and a desire to provide 21st Century engaged learning spaces, West Valley used the master planning effort to share its vision and needs with the voters. With CTA’s support and guidance a $7 million bond was approved, and design under way. In the summer of 2015 West Valley moved into a new 28,000 sf middle school wing with an auxiliary gym, media center, open group collaboration spaces, kitchen, teacher planning areas, acoustic controlled music room, technology enriched environment, and a comfortable safe learning atmosphere. The designers brought fun but affordable and implementable ideas to the table, aiding the team in reaching quick, decisive conclusions.
Budget adherence and revision dominated team meetings, leading to meticulous understanding of every dollar's allocation; yet high performance and inspired design were never sacrificed. One insightful alternative to imported fill was stepping the floor structure and architecture to fit the existing site -- a clever tactic that alone saved over $500,000. In fact, so much money remained in the budget that after every priority "need" had been met, additional "wants" were addressed, including recladding the entire existing school, adding an additional classroom, repaving the parking lot, and repainting/reflooring the majority of the facility. This helped the existing 54,000 sq. ft. of the school better match the 34,500 sq. ft. addition and 4,000 sq. ft. of remodel. Likewise, timelines were monitored closely, our team shaving an entire month off of original estimates.
Additions to the school of more than 700 students included a new formal entry, second practice gym, library, music room, and kitchen, plus 15 additional classrooms. With classroom-width hallways bisecting the learning spaces, the new rooms are highly convertible: sliding and rolling overhead doors, made of laminated glass and seals to maintain acoustics, perform like a wall when they're closed, but open to allow for unprecedented utilization of rooms and tiered thoroughfares as co-teaching space, lunchroom, or indoor amphitheater. Additionally, selected furniture is light and on wheels, easily reassembled into individual, small group, or large group configurations. Distinctly bright and unique colors adorning classroom walls, originally conceived to help with general wayfinding, have an added bonus of helping guide sixth grade students, their first time switching rooms between periods, to their classes via visual/color cues.
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