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Lessons
Learned: A Symposium on School Design Session: 1B - Exterior Space Scribe: Warren Techentin Attendees: Key
Issues: Because the inherent nature of each site the LAUSD will be acquiring is different, each will need to be considered on its own terms within its community and context. Standards, while helpful in trying to 'raise the bar' in the way schools consider developing exterior spaces, were seen as less important than an attempt to achieve certain goals about how we use our landscape and how we relate to the environment. Despite the disparity of each site's conditions, there are larger human, societal, and community goals that apply to all projects. Seemingly, most existing standards were developed when building sites where bigger. New goals might be developed specifically for smaller sites. Some felt that in lieu of standards, a philosophy of play be addressed - 'have we embraced it philosophically in the structure of building new schools?' 'Does the LAUSD have an expert in this area that can help set goals for play, recreation, and the integration of curricula with the outdoors?' Those desiring this philosophical reflection felt that often architects and landscape architects, drawing from personal experiences, were left as the harbingers of the values of exterior space and left to fight for these spaces relegated to secondary importance for one reason or another. Tight budgets, in conjunction with all the other demands, pressures, and requirements school projects must face are in large part responsible for the difficulties in funding exterior space. A large portion of the session was spent talking about funding and experiences people had dealing with these issues. It was noted that opening schools to the community for night and weekend classes was seen as a new way of understanding the relationship of the school to the city and the state and therefore a new way to think about funding. If aspects of the project could be conceived of as a benefit to the community at large, alternative funds could be solicited from a variety of sources on behalf of the neighborhood related items. Creative programming and new ways of maximizing the use and appreciation of what the school has to offer is encouraged. In fact, contemporary examples have shown that when a community feels proud of their school, they become personally invested in, and begin to take responsibility for its maintenance and care - either in the form of planting and gardening or work parties to keep the school clean. Some participants had faced problems with the relationship between the parties involved in the construction of the school. The desire everyone in attendance had was to create an atmosphere where open minded teams of architects, landscape architects, Design Review Boards, and Project Managers work together to improve the design of our schools. Collaborative, open-minded relationships have proved to be more flexible and foster a level of experimentation which has lead to surprising, new solutions. However, everyone agreed that the best projects are a result of the balancing of all the requirements while maintaining creative innovation in the design. Key Issues: Goals not Guidelines - Instead of establishing guidelines for the designer to rigorously follow for situation, we should establish a series of goals and objectives to where we want to go thereby allowing an array of responses that can flexibly be deployed in a variety of situations. Constraints,
Problems and Design Opportunities: 1. New Project Design Requirements: The necessary regulations imposed on any project have probably the strongest impact on the resultant exterior space design. Setback zones, fire lanes, parking requirements, increasingly smaller sites new schools are being built on, accessibility requirements, refuge areas, drop-off areas and bus parking were a few of the given elements which determine various qualities and the quantity of the ensuing exterior space design 2. Topography: even small changes of 2-3 feet across the breadth of the site have repercutions in the design of exterior spaces. Accessibility requirements, maintaining clear paths for emergency exiting from assembly areas to the street, and Fire lanes were all seen as items which would require the use of more space than would be needed on flat sites. 3. Security: Security has a large role in the consideration of exterior space. Security requirements at the entry points determine many of the materials that will need to be used and therefore a corresponding part of the budget. The desire to eliminate invisible corners in schools determines the number and spatial relationship of the spaces to the architecture and often requires that the spaces be surveyed from a single point. 4. Required Program Spaces: Spaces such as the meeting area and the dining area are given and have certain spatial geometries that necessitate their independence from one another and use large percentages of the overall exterior space. Special efforts need to be made to effectively include the smaller spaces as well as to add unsolicited spaces (outside of the original project brief) appropriate for the context. Architecture must frame and interact with these spaces. Too often it is the resultant space left after all the LAUSD building goals are satisfied which drives the ensuing program of exterior space. 5. Budget: A real constraint on the planning and provision of exterior spaces has been budgetary. Budgets in general for all LAUSD projects have been tight. It was found by some that after all the requirements of building a new school were met, little if any was left for landscape architecture sometimes resulting in the bare minimum solution with simply the use of asphalt paving to finish an entire courtyard. Problems: Opening schools to the community at night or on the weekends, while agreed to by all as a very important thing to do, puts incredible pressure on already over taxed landscapes, further reducing the possibility of foliage and other maintenance intensive aspects of the exterior space. An example of a space suffering from these pressures is the playing fields. The intensive, year round curriculum of the LAUSD system makes it difficult to re-sod the playing fields (which can take up to two months). Many of the decisions for the exterior spaces of the school are made based on the cost at time of construction without consideration of the long term Maintenance & Overhead costs to the school. This is partly a problem of the structure of government funding policy. Sustainable materials for example, which may help reduce lifecycle costs and save the school money in the long run cannot be funded from Maintenance & Overhead budgets which is a common accounting procedure in the private sector. Trees as with most live materials are generally difficult to include in school projects because they are so physically challenged. Saplings have difficulty surviving their early years of growth while more mature trees are generally too costly to include in the budgets. Existing trees on the site, if any are always difficult to work around and generally wanted to be removed for ease of construction. Maintenance and gardening costs also increase. Considerations such as fire lanes or parking tend to eliminate possible locations for placement. Trees are also viewed as problems in the main meeting spaces because they are seen to impinge on the flexibility and visibility that those spaces require. Lastly, some voiced concerns that architects eliminate trees from their schemes for fear of obscuring the appreciation of the elevations of the buildings. Design opportunities: Solution
types: 1. Entry into the site: This includes entry gates, car drop off, bus parking, or any other aspect of arriving at and getting into the school. 2. Exterior meeting spaces: This includes hang-out spaces, where kids meet before and after classes, general assembly, and short term play spaces. 3. Dining Areas: Includes sheltering and shading elements. Currently Dining spaces are specifically dining, future planning might include cross over programming allowing this space to be used at other times. 4. Active / Play Space: Typically separate from other types of spaces and often placed at the edges of 'campus' planning overall. These spaces generally vary in size and need according to age group. 5. Passive / Study Spaces: Outdoor classrooms; smaller, quieter exterior spaces where classes can occur, kids can hang out, study, or talk in small groups or by themselves. 6. Ecological / Teaching Spaces: These may include contemporary programming ideas like 'culinary kitchens', vegetable gardens, or 'water recycling features'. Generally, these spaces would be developed to promote understanding and enjoyment of the outdoors, ecology, and environment we all live in. Examples: Some history was invoked during the symposium. Generally, architects lamented the lack of presence schools have in our neighborhoods. Older schools designed with strong facades were seen as positive statements in their community and appropriate in defining their institution roll in the neighborhood. On the other hand, schools designed during the 50's were viewed as optimistic and almost utopian with their relationship to the outdoors. Even in their simple forms, many buildings were designed to include prodigious amounts of natural light and fresh air thereby reducing the need for lights and HVAC systems. Contemporary practice should incorporate some of these lessons to reduce long-term costs to the schools such as energy bills Central L.A. Area New High School #10, Mia Lehrer Associates, landscape architects. Johnson, Fain, Pereira Architects The school is being planned for a 20 acre site near downtown Los Angeles between 3rd and 4th streets and (?) Ave and (?) St. Despite consensus about LAUSD's trend toward smaller sites, this particular project is not indicative of a tight site most LAUSD projects are faced with. The active play / sports areas are separated onto another parcel from the campus and connected by a bridge crossing over 3rd St. The main design concept for the landscaping lies in a series of formally distinguished, smaller, sub-spaces specifically programmed with a direct relationship to the activities going on in the adjacent buildings, all of which help frame the large central courtyard. The main courtyard itself has a direct connection to the ampitheater and can be used for both large groups and teaching sites. Some of the other exterior spaces were a walled off music garden, a sunken court for the art studios, and reading gardens outside the ampitheatre. Mia Lehrer, who presented her project, said she entered the project after the architectural parti had been settled on but before Design Review Board. It was recollected that this was the only project she was aware of where the landscape architect had entered the project before the Design Review Board approval. The relationship with the project manager was characterized as successful because it was unusually open to discussion and the exchange of ideas. It was noted that she had tried to introduce sustainable practice ideas, such as the capture and reuse of water for the playing fields, but these were eliminated due to cost. It was also noted that although there was little time to discuss graffiti during the session, considerations were made in the designs in reference to what was seen as a problem in this neighborhood. Some of
the special or unique features of this project included: An herb garden located adjacent to a 'culinary arts center'. A desert garden outside the second floor library doubles as an outdoor teaching center. Benches and ground paving of colored concrete (considered rare for LAUSD projects because of cost). This was possible because the ampitheatre itself doubled as a stairway thereby eliminating the need for a second stair. The ensuing 'credits' were transferred to the colored concrete. Many of the trees for the project (such as the grove of trees between the football and baseball fields) were not possible within the budgets, special efforts by the landscape architect were needed to secure their donation by local nurseries and benefactors. Belmont Elementary School #6, Mia Lehrer Associates, landscape architects. Perkins & Will, architects The school is being planned for a relatively small site between 1st and Council streets and Vermont Ave and New Hampshire Ave. Mia Lehrer, who again personally presented her project, recollected that she was brought in as the landscape architect after approval by the Design Review Board. More than the previous project, the open spaces were the result of the building placement and their footprint. In addition, the buildings themselves as well as the exterior spaces had to work around and with an existing historic structure (possibly by the architect Julia Morgan). It was noted that because the requirements for programmed exterior space along with fire lanes and drop off areas essentially went unchanged in their respective sizes, correspondingly more of the exterior space is paved leaving very few 'soft spaces' and would be increasingly a common phenomenon with the smaller LAUSD build sites. One of the questions raised through the scheme and by extension with the current policy of the LAUSD to bring the drop off areas around to the side of the site with less traffic, was that the school itself turned a relatively blank face to Vermont, the major street in the community. Lastly, the design included relatively novel programming ideas for the school leading to general questions about how these programs were selected. Typically, a principal or other administrative official responsible for curricular programming for the new school has not been assigned to the school at this point. Many thought it would be useful to conduct 'exit surveys' or post occupancy evaluations that interviewed teachers, students, and community leaders about possibilities for programming diverse environments. Some of the special or unique features of this project include: A garden just outside the library functions as a teaching site. Placement of a small vegetable garden adjacent to the Kindergarten adding an outdoor and environmentally conscious element to the curriculum The asphalt was painted in a variety of colored stripes to make the paving more lively and playful Experiments with chain link fence were made to reduce the ordinary quality of it. The strategy was to accept a very cheap element to satisfy the design budget, but to then try to do something to it thereby making it special and unique. Specified decomposed granite in certain locations Alternative materials for sound abatement were explored and deployed. Recommendations: Work with the increasing density of tight spaces with an expanded concept of how we use buildings and what we consider programmable open space. Roof gardens, parking structure tops, and other areas traditionally not associated with exterior space can be used to create viable, creative, and essential exterior spaces. The concept of diverse environments for the exterior spaces of new LAUSD projects must seek to provide a variety of spaces satisfying the requirements of differently scaled activities and events - Begin Introducing Sustainable Practices considering the well being of the environment, impacts on Maintenance & Overhead, and the lifecycle costing of the school. Architects and designers should develop strong design concepts. Strong concepts may enable alternative and additional funding. Engage landscape design issues early in the design process. Do not relegate it to the leftover space resulting from building planning. Try where permissible to incorporate more 'soft' spaces in the project - especially on smaller build sites where paving becomes so prevalent Explore and develop new ways of using existing materials as well as the encouragement of development of new materials in the private sector to help solve the issues of long term durability, ease of maintenance, 'soft spaces', acoustic transmission, color, etc. Efforts need to be made in thinking about the edges of schools. Rethink walls and fences to reduce the omnipresent sense of barricading. Re approach traditionally cheap ways of making a fence and treat them in a new and unique way Create a conspicuous presence of trees. Find a way to be inclusive and protective of them; set aside funding for their maintenance. Many of the practitioners present recalled that the most prevalent memories from their own school years were memories of the trees on the campus. Use their intrinsic qualities to your advantage: ways of providing shade, gathering nodes, their natural ability to aesthetically soften spaces, controlling passive solar gain, etc. The LAUSD currently has a guidebook of acceptable trees which provides a diverse array of opportunities. LAUSD
Comments and Clarifications:
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