Architectural Design Sample Proposal

Wild Creek Middle School Architectural Design

Please find enclosed our preliminary ideas for the new Wild Creek Middle School building. We’re excited to present plan for new building that is nothing like traditional school buildings. We’ve used only the most modern design techniques to create plan for flexible, state of the art building that will serve generations of children and teachers.

The plans presented in this proposal are based on the following concepts, which will govern Ground Breaking Construction’s strategy in completing this project. Design for eco friendly materials and methods. We plan to use the most environmentally sound materials we can find to build this school.

In the past, schools have had problems with chemically sensitive individuals becoming sick from off gassing of various commonly used wall and floor coverings. Our building will have no such problems. This concept will affect Ground Breaking Construction’s strategy in the following way.

We will use non toxic, eco friendly insulation, wall coverings, and floor treatments. We will hire subcontractors familiar with the installation of these materials and who have pledged to use green building practices. See the Materials page for more details. Design for minimum impact and resource use.

We want this building to be model of environmental protection and resource conservation. This concept will affect Ground Breaking Construction’s strategy in the following way. We will position the building and solar panels and skylights to make the best use of patterns of daylight. We will incorporate solar water heating and electrical panels into the roof structure, use the most modern energy conserving electronics where possible, and use recirculating system for gray water in restrooms and landscape watering systems.

The existing large trees on the property will be saved whenever practical and the creek will be preserved and protected. See the Environmental page for more details. Design for maximum flexibility. The most often cited reason for abandoning school building is that it cannot be remodeled to fit modern needs.

We are designing for maximum flexibility up front, which should make this building meet the community’s needs for decades to come. This concept will affect Ground Breaking Construction’s strategy in the following way. Our building will have few permanent walls and fixtures. Instead, we will construct light, bright shell inside of which walls, desks, and cabinets can be easily moved to create different spaces as needed.

See the Flexibility page for more details. Design for security. Unfortunately, security is an issue we need to address to keep our children safe today.

There have been problems in older school buildings and campuses with strangers entering the setting and with students entering with weapons. We will address both these issues. This concept will affect Ground Breaking Construction’s strategy in the following way.

All exterior and interior classroom doors will have secure programmable card reader locks, and modern alarm system will be available to all staff. See the Security page for more details. We are committed to making this school building model of environmental conservation and energy efficient design. Following are few key points about how we will achieve these goals.

Building Location Rather than locate the building parallel to the street, we have angled it to take full advantage of the movement of the sun. This allows us to maximize the efficiency of our solar roof collectors and to use fewer lights and less heat during daylight hours.

Site Preparation and Preservation

The school site is partially wooded and contains natural stream through which salmon migrate during the summer. We will carefully preserve the majority of the big trees, and create tunnel under which the stream can flow beneath the building. Note that the stream is feature of our landscaping and it will be protected from parking lot or roof runoff.

The site contains several mature apple, pear, and cherry trees an old orchard which will be preserved in the northwest corner. Note that our landscape plans include garden area adjacent to the orchard that can be used to grow fresh vegetables for cafeteria use or for sale.

Efficient Water Usage

Toilets and showers installed will be the latest water conserving models. Gray or ‘used’ water from restroom and cafeteria sinks and showers will be routed to temporary storage tanks that will supply toilets and our landscape watering system.

Rooftop Solar Water Heaters

Solar water heat systems are located above each restroom and gym shower room and the cafeteria food preparation rooms. These should provide most of the heat needed for our hot water usage, although water temperature will be controlled by on demand heaters that will provide additional heat as needed.

Rooftop Solar Electrical Panels

Much of the roof space on our building will be occupied by solar electrical panels. We expect to generate most of the school’s electricity this way.

Skylights and Windows

Our hallways and classrooms will be lit mostly by natural light from high windows, glass brick in the exterior walls, and skylights, substantially cutting down on the need for electric lighting. All windows and skylights will be triple paned and have thermal shades that can be drawn if light is too bright or hot.

Permeable Parking Areas and Walkways

Our parking areas and walkways will be covered with patterns of permeable brick and crushed rock, not with impermeable surfaces such as asphalt and cement. This will protect our stream from toxic runoff, protect the property against flooding, and will also lower the school’s tax bill as our county taxes the square footage of impermeable surfaces. Our new middle school building will be designed for maximum flexibility in terms of room design and accessible to wheelchairs.

The Need for Flexibility

The biggest reason cited for abandoning existing school buildings these days is that the structures cannot be easily remodeled to meet the needs of changing student populations or educational offerings. We want to change all that by creating building in which rooms can be easily customized.

Flexible Features

We are planning to include the following flexible features. Moveable classroom walls When you review our blueprints, you will see that each major hallway has two fixed walls on either side of it, with removable portal sections that can easily be replaced with doors or left in place to continue the solid wall. Within these fixed walls are movable panels that slide and lock into various preset positions along the solid walls, allowing the width of the room to change as needed.

All walls are wired with circuitry that is maintained within the walls and then connects to the broader system at junction box when the walls are locked together. Other electrical outlets and controls are contained in floors and ceilings to be used as needed. Even the areas reserved for science labs are as flexible as possible, with movable sinks and counters and easy connect piping systems.

Wall coverings designed for instruction Solid walls are paneled with mostly with dryboard, which can be written on with erasable markers; moveable walls have projection panels and pin up boards for artwork and notes. All chairs will swivel so that students can easily face different walls. Auditorium Our state of the art auditorium has computerized sound and projection equipment, sectioned moveable stage, and two moveable walls that can be drawn to divide the total seating area into up to three smaller auditoriums as needed.

Restrooms Restrooms are the least flexible areas, as they are plumbing intensive. Note that student lockers line the outside of restroom walls so that these two typically noisy areas are adjacent to each other. Cafeteria The food preparation and serving areas have fixed walls and counters for safety and ease of use.

The cafeteria eating area contains moveable walls for expansion or contraction as needed. We are focusing on eco friendly materials in the construction of this school. In our choice of materials, we have considered not only the nontoxic properties of materials, but also their durability and maintenance issues.

Roof

The building roof will be steel beams overlaid with bamboo sheathing and recycled rubberized tiles where not covered with solar panel or solar water heat systems. Skylights can open for maximum ventilation and will be triple paned with internal thermal shades that can be adjusted by remote control.

Exterior walls

The exterior walls of our building will be thick poured concrete, reinforced with steel. The concrete will be colored and textured on both sides, so there will never be need to paint the building. Glass brick made from recycled glass will be used in repeating patterns for maximum lighting efficiency, as well as triple paned sliding thermal windows.

Interior walls

Permanent interior walls will be steel framed for strength, with soy foam insulation and bamboo paneling. Moveable interior walls will be framed in bamboo, with soy foam insulation, bamboo paneling, and interlocking plastic connection sliders on each end. The bamboo paneling will retain its natural coloring, depending on the type of bamboo, and can be easily cleaned with natural oil soap. There will be no need to paint the walls.

Floors

Floors throughout the building will be concrete, sealed, colored and patterned as our architect and interior designer have specified. Concrete is cheap and nontoxic and can be made to look like tile and stone. Floor mats that may be needed in some areas like science labs and food preparation areas will be of recycled tire and plastic bag materials.

Cabinets

Storage cabinets and bookshelves will be either bamboo or PaperBlok, new material created from recycled paper and natural resins that is as hard as wood.

Countertops

Countertops and tabletops for science labs, library, and cafeteria areas will be either concrete or PaperBlok as specified by the architect.

Sinks

Sinks will be stainless steel for maximum durability and ease of cleaning.

Toilets

Toilets will be stainless steel for maximum durability, with bamboo toilet seats for comfort. All toilets will be water efficient models, using only one gallon of water per flush. They will be connected to our recycled gray water system to re use water from sinks when that water available.

Security is of the utmost importance to Ground Breaking Construction. We have identified the following needs for security in our new middle school building. Secure entrances to school building. We want only students and staff to be able to easily enter and exit our building.

Risks

Unauthorized visitors may be on campus to harm students or staff, or to steal or vandalize school or private property.

Requests Recommendations

Each school entrance will have programmable card key reader on which students and staff must tap their electronic passes. This also allows us to keep computerized record of student and staff movements. Secure entrances to classrooms. We want only those students who are enrolled in specific classes to be able to enter the classroom.

Risks

Students ‘visiting’ classrooms other than their own without permission are often there to harass other students or staff, or to steal or vandalize property. Each classroom door will have cardkey reader programmed to admit only teachers and students who belong in that classroom. Metal detectors.

Sadly, there may be times in which we need to determine if students or staff have brought weapons into the school. Individuals carrying guns, knives, or other weapons pose risk to everyone in the school. Two sets of metal detectors will be built into the walls at either end of the main hallway.

The principal or security officer can turn these on or off as needed. This has the additional advantage of giving staff the ability to ‘screen’ the public coming to auditorium to attend student play or music event.

Communication system

We want every room to be able to transmit as well as receive verbal messages through central communication system. In the event of an emergency, those in room may be cut off from communication with the outside. Each teacher’s desk will contain communications module that has panic button and microphone as well as speakers in front for students to hear messages from the central office.

Security cameras

We want every room except for restrooms to be visible via security cameras. We cannot know what’s going on unless we can see it, and in the event of an emergency or crime situation, these monitors can aid first responders to help us as quickly as possible. Security cameras will be installed in all rooms except for restrooms, all hallways, and all parking lots and recreation areas. Security cameras will be monitored in the Computer Center as shown on the blueprint.

The Computer Center will also house the servers and other important computer equipment for the school. Please find enclosed our preliminary ideas for the new Wild Creek Middle School building. We’re excited to present plan for new building that is nothing like traditional school buildings. We’ve used only the most modern design techniques to create plan for flexible, state of the art building that will serve generations of children and teachers.

We realize that this is only the first step in your building approval process and so our concepts are drawn with broad strokes at this time. If you get as excited about our design concepts as we are, we would be pleased to put together detailed plan with specific costs, schedules, and lists of subcontractors.