Ellen Ochoa Elementary School

Ellen Ochoa Elementary School

TULSA, OKLAHOMA

  • Union Public Schools
  • New Construction
  • 133,000 SF total
  • (Phase I: 70,000 SF, Phase 2: 14,000 SF., Phase 3: 49,000 SF)
  • $31 million

A tight-knit community centers around the new Ellen Ochoa Elementary.

This new school is deeply embedded in its surrounding neighborhoods, with the majority of the population living within a one-mile radius of the school. Spaces for community events, including open gyms, adult education and a community garden and kitchen, where parents and students can learn to grow and cook together.

The educational spaces open out into shared collaboration spaces and the central media space, blurring the lines of the traditional definition of a classroom. Classrooms incorporate a shared “Dream Space” dedicated to focused learning and small-group work.

Named after astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, this elementary school is unlike any other in the district.

Grain Valley High School

GRAIN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL

GRAIN VALLEY, MISSOURI

  • Grain Valley School District
  • Addition-Phase 4
  • 33,400 SF & 17,600 SF Courtyard
  • $10.2 million

A new face for Grain Valley High School provides a prominent sense of arrival and display of school pride.

Upon arrival at Grain Valley High School, students and visitors are guided in along the impressive, curved, blue CMU wall that begins at the entry and continues throughout the interior, comprising the spine of the building and dubbed “Eagle Way”. The raised entrance increases visibility from the street while improving traffic flow for student drop-off and pick-up.

Similar to a central college campus union, the media center represents the heart of the school, branded by a large glass eagle graphic that is visible from both inside and out. Glass dividers promote connectivity to the lecture hall, makerspace and small group collaboration rooms while providing views into the expansive courtyard. Tiered seating in the courtyard provides an outdoor learning area and offers dynamic spaces for students to socialize.

Grain Valley High School is currently home to nearly 1,100 students but is master planned to accommodate up to 1,600 high school students in the rapidly growing community. While working with the district throughout a five-phase master plan, Hollis + Miller became very familiar with the goals and priorities of the district and community.

Sunshine Elementary School

As one of the oldest elementary schools in the area, it was important to the community to maintain the historic integrity of the building while updating the school to modern educational standards.

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Heartland Middle School

Heartland Middle School

In Association with Frankfurt, Short, Bruza

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

  • Edmond Public Schools
  • New Construction
  • 150,000 SF
  • $27 million

Learning happens outside traditional academic neighborhoods. An outdoor classroom and an exterior courtyard encourage students to take learning outside.

Designing for middle school students presents unique challenges because these young adults are five years removed from teddy bears but five years away from driving. They’re in the process of significant developmental changes, so flexible spaces that encourage adaptable teaching methods for every type of learner are critical.

Looking for opportunities to take students outside of the traditional classroom was a priority for Edmond Public Schools’ newest middle school.

Heartland Middle School

In Association with Frankfurt, Short, Bruza

EDMOND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

  • Edmond, Oklahoma
  • New Construction
  • 150,000 sq. ft.
  • $27 million

Learning happens outside traditional academic neighborhoods. An outdoor classroom and an exterior courtyard encourage students to take learning outside.

Designing for middle school students presents unique challenges because these young adults are five years removed from teddy bears but five years away from driving. They’re in the process of significant developmental changes, so flexible spaces that encourage adaptable teaching methods for every type of learner are critical.

Looking for opportunities to take students outside of the traditional classroom was a priority for Edmond Public Schools’ newest middle school.

Academic areas are specific to every type of learner and include:

  • performance based
  • project based
  • elevated and casual/social learning

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.

Metropolitan Community College-Engineering Technology Center

MCC-hero

Metropolitan Community College – Engineering Technology Center

  • Penn Valley Campus-Engineering Technology Center
  • Renovation & Addition
  • 16,000 SF
  • $7 million

An integrated fabrication lab brings forth many opportunities for engineering majors, art majors and the surrounding community.

Metropolitan Community College is relocating the Engineering Technology program from the Business and Technology Campus to the Penn Valley Campus to increase utilization of their existing building and create synergies between the college’s graphic design diagram and the engineering technology program.

Functions such as the fabrication lab and the 3D printing lab offer regular opportunities for students to collaborate, ideate and prototype in a shared space that will now be available to the graphic design program housed in the current Carter Arts Building. The physical placement of the program on the south edge of the Penn Valley campus is seen as a means of being a visible and usable asset to the community from which they can also access tools and technical expertise provided by talented and industry-connected faculty. In addition, it will feature a double-height space for the fabrication lab with greater connectivity to the exterior environment through the use of extensive glazing and covered outdoor spaces offering students their choice of environments in which to create.