perkins

Serving 900 students, grades 6 through 8, the building’s design is zoned into two components: an academic zone dedicated to classrooms and student interaction areas, and a public zone for media, athletics, an auditorium, and a dining commons. Perkins & Will Principal Ralph Johnson oriented the building to maximize daylight throughout. The classroom wings are oriented along an east-west axis with a majority of the classroom glazing facing north. South-facing clerestories balances the light levels to create an evenly daylit environment. The school is also oriented to take advantage of the prevailing winds, which naturally ventilate and cool the interiors through wind towers located on the roof of the building’s circulation spine and through louvers based at the floor level of the spine. The towers exhaust the air from inside the building while the louvers allow natural air to circulate replacing the exhausted air. The school’s landscape design demonstrates sustainability principles, making it a symbol of the school’s relationship with the surrounding environment. The design consists of outdoor classrooms, a playground, and an outdoor ecology laboratory. All three of these components are designed with recycled and low-embodied-energy materials. The landscape adopts the aesthetic of the Midwestern prairie, evidenced in tall grasses and a river-like water system that will sustain the plants with irrigation and mitigate runoff water from the surrounding parking lots.