East Middle School

East Middle School
East Middle School

East Middle School

JOPLIN, MISSOURI

  • Joplin School District
  • New Construction
  • 125,800 SF total
  • $30.4 million

A shared building with a well-defined threshold eases the transition from elementary to middle school, while a bold, vibrant color palette set this young adult space apart from elementary.

Sharing a site with Soaring Heights Elementary School, it’s important that the architecture, design and environmental graphics emphasize the maturity, focus and confidence that comes with young adulthood.

This school replaces the middle school lost on May 22, 2011, when the worst tornado disaster on record to date in the United States hit to the City of Joplin. The Superintendent called this effort “Operation Rebuild.”

Metropolitan Community College Student Success Center

Metropolitan Community College – Penn Valley Campus Student Success Center

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  • Metropolitan Community College
  • Renovation
  • 15,000 SF
  • $1.4 million

Students are drawn to the Student Success Center’s second floor. It’s a bustling, highly flexible environment used daily for individual or small group study.

What was once a dark, broken-up and uninviting space is now a bright, open place where students want to be. Flexible furniture makes students feel comfortable and welcome and encourages various study styles. The new Success Center connects to the library, humanities building and campus center in a highly visible way, allowing students more collaborative learning.

St. James Academy

ST. JAMES ACADEMY

LENEXA, KANSAS

  • Archdiocese of Kansas City-Kansas
  • New Construction
  • 108,000 SF

Located in a growing suburb within the greater Kansas City area, this facility integrates and adapts to changes in education, spirituality and technology.

The Chapel serves as the Heart of the Campus. This statement not only led to the present location of the Chapel, but also a concept of allowing students to be in the Presence of Christ as they experienced the building through visual connections to the Tabernacle. The Chapel is also flexible enough to not only accommodate 200 students, but the entire 800-student population, and still maintain a contiguous space so that they felt like they were apart of the Mass. We accomplished this by combining the allocated space for dining, gathering, and the Chapel into one large common centralized space detailed with similar materials and volume.

st-james-2
St-james-1

Learnscape-Hickman Mills School District

LEARNSCAPE 2016

  • Hickman Mills School District
  • Baptiste Educational Center, Burke Elementary School

The fourth recipient of Hollis + Miller’s annual Learnscape was the Hickman Mills School District’s Compass Program. Compass is a project-based STEAM learning program centered at the Baptiste Educational Center. The design is created to engage sight, smell, touch, movement, balance and sound, capturing students’ desire to explore and learn through play.

Organized around a spiraling walkway, the design engages five sensory zones. The first zone focuses on the visual arts and includes easels, markerboards and display walls for art shows. Continuing along the path, the second zone transitions to an area focused on sense of smell. Fragrant plantings host a variety of colors, native fruits and berries throughout the fall and winter. Down the path, a ten-foot water table provides an opportunity for tactile play, science experiments and the occasional boat race. Students can then enter zone four, featuring an abstract architectural representation of a boulder using varying inclined planes to challenge students with movement and balance. The sound of students learning about rhythm tone can be heard throughout, as drums made from repurposed rain barrels and recycled drum skins anchor sensory zone five. Culminating the path at the center of the spiraling design is an amphitheater which can accomodate larger group gatherings.

Olathe West High School

Olathe West High School

OLATHE, KANSAS

  • Olathe USD 233
  • New Construction
  • 375,000 SF
  • $85 million
  • Design Partner: Stantec Architecture

Learning is on display at this one-of-a-kind high school.

From the moment students walk in the door, they’re greeted with the media center and the 21st Century Learning program labs. Student socialization and collaboration are encouraged with two learning stairs connecting academic neighborhoods.

Academic neighborhoods house a variety of spaces from flexible labs to blended learning environments, giving the school a more collegiate feel. No teacher owns their classroom, but rather chooses the environment that will work best for that day’s lesson.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • AIA Kansas – Citation Award in Large Architecture
  • A4LE Midwest Great Lakes – John Shaw Award

Millcreek Campus

Millcreek Campus
Millcreek Campus

Millcreek Campus

OLATHE, KANSAS

  • Olathe USD 233
  • Addition & Renovation
  • 98,000 SF
  • $16 million

Learners of all ages – toddler to adult – now feel at home at the renamed Millcreek Campus. This multi-generational learning environment houses several of the District’s community and alternative learning programs. With all these generations meeting in this one space, collaborative learning is taken to the next level.

The Parents as Teachers program hosts parents of young children for playgroups and child development support. Flexible learning environments and specialized spaces allow middle and high school students with special circumstances the opportunity to catch up or stay on track with their schoolwork, and adult education classroom spaces offer community members the opportunity to expand their career opportunities.

This historic campus was previously known as the John P. St. John Memorial High School, originally built in 1926. This outdated facility housed many of these educational and community programs in three separate buildings. Our design team worked with the District’s educational partners to reimagine the campus, starting with an addition that connects the buildings and allows for more collaboration and engagement. Today, the space welcomes learners of every generation– making it a learning environment like no other.

millcreeknew