Learnscape-Shawnee Mission School District

LEARNSCAPE 2018

  • Shawnee Mission School District
  • Sunflower Elementary School

An immersive outdoors experience is at Sunflower Elementary School’s students fingertips, with hands-on learning happening everywhere.

Hollis + Miller embarked on a Learnscape journey with SMSD and its students to create an outdoor classroom supporting the students’ desires and the district’s sustainability goals. As part of the process, the students identified their highest priorities for the district, which included incorporating school gardens and natural areas.
The completed space encourages students to discover the natural environment by interacting with the area in different ways. Students can study water conservation benefits by utilizing the on-site cistern as they tend to planter boxes created for each grade level to learn about lifecycles and ecology. A solar panel on the roof of a large, covered deck gives students an up-close connection to alternative energy sources. Even the area’s signage doubles as a musical instrument, teaching students about the physics of sound.

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.”

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

Joplin Early Childhood Center

Joplin Early Childhood Center

JOPLIN, MISSOURI

  • Joplin School District
  • New Construction
  • 37,500 SF
  • $8.7 million

After seven years in temporary classrooms, Joplin’s littlest learners finally have a home for learning and exploring. This is “Where it all Begins…”

Teachers can now collaborate together to utilize shared learning centers that are integral to their early education curriculum, rather than having to house these centers in their classrooms, which has freed up space in their rooms for more individual and group learning.

It was important for the Joplin community that their Early Childhood Center feels more like a home than a school to ease the transition for students. This space comes alive thanks to the integration of the environmental graphics. Students and visitors are immersed in a forest of trees and critters. The Learning Grove opens learners’ imaginations with construction and waterplay stations, as well as a tricycle track, blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor learning.

In May 2011, an F-5 tornado struck the city of Joplin, devastating the community. The District’s early childhood center is the last piece of Operation Rebuild.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • IIDA Mid-America – Silver Award in K-12 Education
  • AIA Kansas City – Citation Award in Interior Architecture

Joplin Early Childhood Center

JOPLIN, MISSOURI

  • Joplin School District
  • New Construction
  • 37,500 SF
  • $8.7 million

After seven years in temporary classrooms, Joplin’s littlest learners finally have a home for learning and exploring. This is “Where it all Begins…”

Teachers can now collaborate together to utilize shared learning centers that are integral to their early education curriculum, rather than having to house these centers in their classrooms, which has freed up space in their rooms for more individual and group learning.

It was important for the Joplin community that their Early Childhood Center feels more like a home than a school to ease the transition for students. This space comes alive thanks to the integration of the environmental graphics. Students and visitors are immersed in a forest of trees and critters. The Learning Grove opens learners’ imaginations with construction and waterplay stations, as well as a tricycle track, blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor learning.

In May 2011, an F-5 tornado struck the city of Joplin, devastating the community. The District’s early childhood center is the last piece of Operation Rebuild.

Guadalupe Centers

As a hub in the Latino communities of Kansas City, the Guadalupe Centers’ elementary and library renovations will allow the program to efficiently serve more individuals for years to come.

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Learnscape-Grain Valley School District

LEARNSCAPE 2017

  • Grain Valley School District
  • Grain Valley High School

Located on a wooded site just South of Grain Valley High School, the concept was to produce and reveal a sense of coexistence among people, nature and technology.

Through design sessions with Grain Valley students and faculty, the idea to create a dominate walkway of varying heights linking learning spaces of diverse sizes took shape. A layer of technology was added to the site, paradoxically, to aid in the experience of the natural site. The major building materials were purposely kept simple – limestone gravel for the path, Cor-ten steel for the major horizontal and vertical elements, and cedar lumber for the deck. Keeping with our concept, the natural environment will slowly change the steel from grey to a dark red as it rusts, while just the opposite will happen to the cedar. It will slowly change from its natural reddish hue to steel grey over time. These materials speak to the ever-changing natural world. The path links several backdrops for education, including a gathering space for 20-30 students and staff, a collaboration space for smaller groups, a garden space to facilitate biological and botanical curriculum, and an observation area away from the noise of civilization meant to be a more quiet and contemplative space for individuals.

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

Carpenters’ Union Training Facility

Kansas City – St. Louis Carpenters’ Training Facility

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  • Adaptive Reuse
  • 68,000 SF
  • $5.7 million

Apprentices and instructors have the room and storage they need for all their trades to learn in this new training facility. 

Moving from an older, smaller space to an adapted former big box store gave the Carpenters Union not just the right amount but the right type of space to combine its training facility with its regional offices. Apprentices split their time between classrooms and the workshop, so every classroom is physically or visually connected to the workshop. Large graphics make the room numbers easily visible from anywhere in the facility.

This facility also serves as the regional office for the Carpenters Union of Kansas City – St. Louis. The front of the space features an administrative suite, and the facility also has the ability to open up for public events including community meetings and political rallies.

St. Elizabeth Early Childhood Center

St. Elizabeth Early Childhood Center

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  • St. Elizabeth Catholic School
  • Renovation/Addition
  • 20,000 SF
  • $4 million

DIOCESE OF KANSAS CITY-ST. JOSEPH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

For years, the St. Elizabeth Early Childhood Center was located across a high-traffic street from the Catholic Church, calling for their youngest students to journey back and forth multiple times a day. Hollis + Miller designed a master plan for the Church, putting high priority on uniting the Early Childhood Center, K-8 school and the Catholic Church on the same side of the street. The new design does just that, providing peace of mind for staff and parents, and also allows opportunities for growth and adaptations in the future.

The renovated rectory building hosts eight new classrooms for pre-k and kindergarten students. The rectory, a residential home for members of the clergy, challenged the design team to develop innovative solutions transforming the space into a learning environment. The design incorporates research-based learning tools and showcases a touch of tradition with the existing stone walls of the rectory, as well as the connecting Church. The new early childhood center features a learning stair and sliding classroom walls for co-teaching, shared storage areas and indoor/outdoor collaboration spaces to expand fine motor skills. A large balcony serves as a flexible commons area and gathering space for students, staff and parish members.