Elementary education in the art of school designs.

A neighborhood school, often the vital center of a community and its most conspicuous and identifying structure--its landmark--presents the architect with special challenges and responsibilities.

It's no wonder school proposals elicit such heated attention. Schools are often the central institution in a suburban community. Peoples' lives revolve around them. They use the gym, the library, they vote there, they go to PTA meetings--and the buildings often have the largest public indoor gathering space in town.

Designing a building that serves the school's particular purpose and, at the same time, pleases its neighbors requires a host of skills that go far beyond the drawing board. A community might welcome a new school proposal or oppose it loudly. In smaller school districts new projects are financed through bond referenda and there are often conflicts between different segments of the population, some of whom might be reluctant to vote in favor of a project that will raise their taxes.

It's the institutional architect's role to deal with such challenges. Our responsibility is to assist the local school district or the school development agency in showing the community what the project looks like and why it's a good idea. How you present the project's design and work with people in the community is often as important as the design itself.

When Gruzen Samton is commissioned by a school district or agency we schedule "workshops" early in the design stage to meet with members of the community, present proposed plans and take feedback. We bring in drawings or PowerPoint presentations and get reactions. We say, "This is what the school district is proposing: do you have any thoughts? Because things are still open and fluid--we can make changes." That's the smart thing to do with capital projects that have an impact on neighborhoods.

The term institutional has a bad rap for a number of reasons, but there's nothing inherently good or bad about being institutional. What people typically think of as bad institutional form is usually bad architecture--buildings that lack any sort of story or interest. That story is achieved through orchestrating contrasts--between high and low, light and dark, closed and open.

A well-designed institutional building should boldly stand apart from the background fabric of surrounding residential structures, even while it incorporates some of the elements of their architecture. It should be perceived as special. It should contain something that sticks in your head, so that people might say, for example, "That's the building with the funky stairs, the clock tower or the unusual ceiling in the gym."

In the Freeport New Visions Elementary School, a magnet school nicknamed "the museum," the distinctive, defining feature is the school's elaborate, impressive entryway. The New Visions School organizes its curriculum around creative student projects and exhibitions, aimed at enhancing learning. Gruzen Samton architects consulted extensively with the school to fully flesh out its philosophy and objectives.

We came up with a two-part plan, including an academic wing and a public facilities wing, joined by an entry we called a "gallerium"--a two-story-high atrium and grand stairway that provides a dramatic gallery setting for the display of student work. The entry is large enough for big sculptural pieces that need to stand on their own with space around them.

The design for New Visions takes a new approach to corridors as well, another detail that often gives school architecture a bad name. The people who use the school buildings on a daily basis don't like corridors that are long, dreary and lined with lockers. New Visions corridors have display niches and places for informal gathering.

The design for the New Visions School met with little resistance from the Freeport community. People liked the fact that it was a new building and that it was going to look different. Of course, had this building been in more of a historical neighborhood the public reception might have been different, which was the case with a school complex Gruzen Samton designed for a neighborhood in Jersey City.

Scheduled for completion in the fall of 2005, the project is a prime example of the multi-faceted approach an architectural firm needs to take in planning a successful institution. Gruzen Samton, in association with Edwards & Kelcey, was commissioned to design a two-building campus for PS 3 Elementary School and the MS 4 Middle School. The site is bounded by a lovely historic brownstone area along Van Vorst Park on one side and Grand Street, a busy four-lane thoroughfare, on the other.

To implement the design, we analyzed the scale of the adjacent buildings, a mixture of 19th century brownstones with high stoops and larger apartment blocks that date from the early 20th century. We wanted to understand the colors and textures of that architecture--the rhythm of it--and incorporate that into the design.

The school building bordering the residential neighborhood had to respond to the historic context. We did that by articulating a modern interpretation of bay windows, which are an element in the classrooms, breaking them down into a more interesting kind of scale and introducing some contrast.

We met with members of the community right from the start. A neighborhood of educated professionals who care deeply about development in their area, they had opinions and weren't afraid to express them. After some discussions we toned down the colors in certain areas on the outside of the building. Playful bright colors were reserved for the kids inside.

Many in the community were impressed right off the bat with the variety of highly accessible public amenities built into the school's plan. But some came to the early meetings dead set against any change at all. They might have been happier with the decrepit hot dog factory that had been there before. Addressing their concerns from the beginning was essential to winning broad support.

In the end, I think the community will come to embrace it as an institution born of its needs and reflecting its essential character--a true neighborhood landmark.