Presents the proceedings of a forum of policymakers and practitioners from across California, along with national experts, examining the wide range of California state policies on school planning, design, and construction, and the ways those policies influence local decisions. Specifically, the forum was convened to understand what California policies and practices influence, promote, and/or hinder: 1) the location and size of new school sites, 2) building shared use and joint use school facilities and/or sites, and 3) innovative school design (especially in relation to location, site size, and use of schools). The report presents the forum's three conclusions and a set of recommendations for each. 33p.

Helps school boards and communities assess their options when considering replacing or renovating an established school. Considering the renovation the school within the context of neighborhood revitalization is emphasized, as is the construction quality typical of older schools, the assistance design professionals can provide, the value of small schools, the benefits of walking to school, the environmental wisdom of reusing older buildings, and the potential for adaptive reuse of older commercial buildings as schools. Case studies and opportunities particular to Pennsylvania are included. 32p.

A team of clients, architects, and a contractor discuss how they worked together to turn an abandoned laundry building into a vibrant new charter high school. The process created a school that feels like home to the students, and helps revitalize their New Jersey community. The different phases of the project are explained using a series of online videos, models of the project, photographs of the before and after, and photographs of the final project.

This PowerPoint presentation explores the best thinking about fitting innovative educational practices into older facilities. Includes more than 100 slides illustrating with photographs and floorplans a number of case studies of new schools in old buildings, historic preservation, and adaptive reuse. The presentation was given by Frank Locker, Laura Wernick, Lorne McConachie, Randy Fielding, and Steve Olson.

The research project describes a Providence-based non-profit organization called the Big Picture Company (BP), and its efforts to replicate its small high school design in multiple communities throughout the United States (with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). It refers implicitly also to BP's ambition (and that of the Gates Foundation) to have influence beyond these schools -- to change American high schooling in fundamental ways. The researchers wanted to know what challenges BP would encounter as it took on these tasks, and to infer from its experience what other school designers might encounter. They also wanted to document the strategies that BP might employ to manage these challenges, and to assess their relative strength. They laid out the challenges and strategies in essays, situating both with the context of other scaling-up efforts within and beyond the field of education. In the first two essays, the authors name what they take to be the seven challenges of scaling up new school designs, and illustrate five of them with data gathered from studying both the BP experience and the literature of scaling up educational and other innovations. The third essay explores the 6th challenge, the challenge of obtaining and managing resources sufficient to scale. The fourth and final essay, explores the seventh challenge -- negotiating the politics of local adoption. 171p.

Explores the integration of the school curriculum with school grounds through the creation of a new environmental education center with associated outdoor learning areas within the Corcoran High School campus in Syracuse, New York. The project identifies specific precedents and programs and explores the application of these to the Corcoran site. The outcome of the project was the selection of a site for the new environmental education center, the development of program elements for the new center, initial site design explorations for the center, as well as a conceptual look at the future of the Corcoran campus. 70p.

Describes a K-12 school being configured within a former Kmart store in Lehigh Acres, Florida. The Lee County School District approved the design of a new K-12 school that was created in three months. Construction is expected to be completed in just six months, which is less than 50 percent of the average time elementary schools are designed and constructed; high schools can take up to two and a half years to build. 3p.

This handbook provides guidance for planning and designing high-quality, flexible, and sustainable learning spaces for learners of all ages in museums, heritage sites, and discovery centers. Topics covered include: the development process; working with architects; location and dimension of the space; planning for the future; new technologies; fittings, furniture, and equipment; services; costs; storage and display; and usage, management, and maintenance. Eleven case studies are provided. 52p.

What rural communities can learn from the hermit crab is that finding and reusing cost-effective accommodations can be a brilliant survival tactic. This book offers educators and community members a range of such strategies to help keep their small schools in their communities. Four chapters cover the following themes: 1) the case for keeping rural schools local; 2) the condition of rural school facilities and obstacles to their improvement; 3) creative solutions to rural facilities challenges; and 4) lessons learned and strategies to consider for planning with the community, identifying assets and liabilities, working with policy, and funding the project. 128p.

Suggests adapting the model of the ancient Greek "agora" to create successful small schools and describes several that have done so while reducing costs. These innovative urban small schools are the modern equivalent of the agora, where students and adults interact with the community, share resources, and learn from each other. Strategies used by communities to keep schools small and local include sharing facilities with other schools, reconfiguring large high schools, sharing with an education partner, sharing with a noneducation partner, sharing with the community, leasing space in the community, using the small facility in new ways, leasing the whole facility, and capitalizing on the facility. (Contains 18 references.) 2p.

This publication focuses on four school adaptive reuse projects--in Phoenix, Arizona; Wake County, North Carolina; Pomona, California; and Trenton, New Jersey. Together, the projects illustrate the many benefits of adaptive reuse and show that mainstream school districts can meet the regulatory and political challenges necessary to make such projects succeed, providing new schools when and where they are needed and transforming unused buildings into spaces that serve the diverse needs of students, parents, educators, and communities. While geographically and demographically distinct, the four projects share certain similarities: an immediate need to provide more school space existed; long construction lead times and state-mandated minimum site sizes were not available; non-educational buildings existed within the school district that could be transformed affordably; and the school district and the community possessed people who could recognize adaptive reuse opportunities and follow through with a project that called for innovation, good management, and political savvy. 12p.

This provide text and images of the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles, California. This charter school was founded by a non-profit community support group in Westlake. It was created by reusing and renovating an abandoned stucco mini-mall, warehouse buildings, and a parking lot. The primary design goal of the charter school was to create buildings that are inviting and invigorating to the whole community.

Purchased by the Pomona School District for $5.5 million, an economically distressed mall on 25 acres of land is being converted into a multi-use educational center, featuring an elementary school, an adult education center, a child-care facility, teacher training classrooms, a conference center and retail spaces.

This book looks at planning from a “lessons learned” perspective, using examples and narrative to relate the Cuningham Group's process and philosophy while demonstrating how to apply educational research in real world settings. The second edition includes updated graphics, additional case studies, and a new chapter that examines a sustainable approach to school design. Following an introduction, the discussion is broken down into the following chapters: (1) “Schools That Fit;” (2) “Toward Better Schools;” (3) “Schools That Fit Communities;” (4) “Schools That Fit Education Leaders;” (5) “Schools That Fit Teachers;" (6) “Schools That Fit Learners;" (7) “Schools That Fit Children;” and (8) “Schools That Fit The World.” The book is intended to be a resource for communities, schools, and districts as they explore how education impacts the learning environment. 72p.

This article asserts that it is critical to understand the connections between human ecology and building ecology to create humane environments that show inspiration and creativity and that also serve diverse needs. It calls for efforts to: (1) construct an environmental education approach that fuses the three ecologies (natural, human, and building); (2) recognize trends toward physical learning environments that are not located in traditional schools; (3) include all stakeholders in the exploration of the physical environment as an extension of the curriculum; (4) expand the number and diversity of subjects benefiting from a comprehensive built environmental education curriculum; and (5) continue to seek ways to make visible how buildings function and how they are connected to the greater community and environment at large. 5p.

Six alternative projects were award winners of the 2002 Awards for Innovative Learning Environments, sponsored by School Construction News and Design Share. Each of the six project descriptions includes an overview, site plan, floor plans, exploded axonometric plan, images, team and data, and building materials. The six projects include: Congo Gorilla Forest, Bronx, NY; Taking it Global, multiple locations; the New Harry S. Truman High School, Federal Way, WA; William D. Ford Career-Technical Center, Westland, MI; Carroll Center for the Blind, Newton, MA; Galef Center for Fine Arts, Otis College, Los Angeles, CA; the Fairfield Branch of the Lane Public Library, Fairfield, OH; and Calamvale Community College, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.

Examining the trend toward an older U.S. population, this publication discusses why educators and school facility planners should consider designing multipurpose schools that specifically contribute to stronger intergenerational links. Reasons include: ending age segregation, enriching the lives of children and seniors, creating support for public education, and keeping seniors healthy and learning. The twelve-page publication also discusses the challenges and opportunities of such efforts, including the diversity of retirees, issues of joint venture, funding, cost savings, accessibility, finding space, using space wisely, giving new life to historic school buildings, security, and staffing. The publication includes numerous case studies and fifteen references. 12p.

The AIA Committee on Architecture for Education gathered in Seattle September 18-20, 2002, to consider the variety of learning experiences available, and the type of space needed for them. From companies to museums, there are a variety of practices and environments for people to learn in and places from which K-12 school designers can obtain new ideas. Includes an overview of K-12 school design in the Pacific Northwest, and case studies of Truman High School, Orenco and Patterson Elementary Schools, Imlay Elementary School, Chief Leschi School, White River High School; Terrace Park K-8, Strawberry Vale and Seabird Island Elementary, Edmonds-Woodway High School,Cedar Valley Community School, Terrace Park Schoo. Describes learning centers in the Pacific Northwest including Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center, Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station (MERTS), Clatsop Community College, Tolt Water Treatment Facility, and Cedar River Watershed Education Center. 20p.

The case studies in this booklet highlight how five communities, in big cities and small towns, overcame the obstacles inherent in creating good new schools in existing neighborhoods. There is mounting evidence that small schools provide a better quality education than large ones. Among the obstacles faced in establishing new schools in old areas are: (1) school building standards, codes, and regulations; (2) difficulty in acquiring land; (3) districts have lost the skill to build schools; and (4) building “greenfield” schools is more familiar. The Oyster School in Washington, D.C., is an example of a school modernized through parent efforts when the school system was not able to find the funds for improvement of the facility. Sharing the existing space with an apartment building, at the cost of some space, resulted in a renovated school. In Pomona, California, a school was built at the site of a mall and vacant supermarket. A magnet-type school was built in Dallas, Texas, on the last piece of undeveloped land near a multifamily apartment complex. Two public academies were established in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, to attract children whose parents work in town and ensure that both the academies were filled to capacity. Rebuilding on the site of an old school was the solution for Manitowoc, Wisconsin, as it worked to meet the needs of a neighborhood. Some other examples of noteworthy approaches to new schools for old communities are briefly outlined. 20p.

Student body demographics, combined with curriculum, and set against a particular architectural backdrop are defining elements of any school; and therefore are the means with which the problems of the urban high school should be addressed. These three elements can frame and reinforce the ideological shift away from viewing education as an individual's preparatory hiatus from society towards viewing education as an integral part of everyday life. Currently there is a plan to demolish Halifax's withering St. Patrick's High School, on Quinpool Road's busy commercial strip and build a new school on this site to accommodate the students of both St. Pat's and the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth High. If alternatively, we allow this site which has had educational facilities on it for over a hundred years, to accommodate a much more architecturally and programmatically innovative building, for an alternative student body; we can begin to look at unifying the students, the curriculum, and the architecture, in order to address the question: What role can architecture play in facilitating responsive educational practice? [Author's abstract]

Memo describes issues California schools must address in order to develop a small school site policy and plan when the proposed site does not achieve school site sizes recommended in the [California] "Guide to School Site Analysis and Development" (2000 Edition). Discusses playground space recommendations, overall acreage standards, and acreage credits for parking structures, roof-top play areas and joint, or shared use of facilities between schools and other local governmental entities. Links to "Small School Site Size Worksheet." 3p.

Provides names, addresses, and profiles for more than a dozen museum schools that incorporate both formal education learning environments (schools) and informal, experiential learning centers (museums). Includes a description, contact information, and a link to the schools and partnering institutions. Information for the profiles was obtained from articles and school websites, and was compiled by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Educational Design.

This paper summarizes the ideas that were exchanged between Americans and Europeans during a conference held in Amsterdam November 7-10, 2000, by the Committee on Architecture for Education. The subject was the future of school design, including the shape of the school and the way changing educational methods are affecting school buildings. Case studies presented during the conference were: "Open and Flexible Spaces;" "Designing a Place for Problem Solving: The Center for Applied Technology and Career Exploration;" Designing for the Unknown;" "School Size and Quality: What Does This Mean for the Future;" "Creating a Building Design for an Integrated Approach to Teaching and Learning;" "The School as a Building for Lifelong Learning;" "Concept Development as the Key to Innovative Accommodation;" and "Mapping Physical and Virtual Learning Environments." The highlighted workshops explored six themes in school design: location, space, time, scale, cost, and context. Participants were challenged to consider the effects of these specific elements within the design process. 10p.

Presents concepts for using public school capital projects as tools for revitalizing a post-idustrial American City. It applies the school design and planning strategy called City of Learning [COL] to historic Paterson, New Jersey. COL embraces educators' argument that healthy neighborhoods support successful learning and makes school design and programming holistic by looking beyond the school building to the school setting at the neighborhood, town, and city scales. By doing so, it identifies schools as a potent new force in urban revitalization as it explands preK-12 educational options. The first section describes the framework of the "City of Learning" concept, which involves building schools as neighborhood foci and converting industrial and commercial facilities into schools. Subsequent sections present the plans for four nontraditional learning environments, using the city's rich architectural heritage, parks, existing schools, and libraries. 220p.

This document examines three locations that schools have utilized in partnership with private enterprises to help ease school overcrowding: downtown areas, airports, and malls. The downtown model serves students whose parents work in a downtown area. The mall model targets high school students who want an alternative education with job training. The airport model provides a school with space on airport grounds so that students of airport employees can attend school. These initiatives help local school districts save funds that would otherwise be used to construct facilities, freeing up resources for other district needs. Students benefit from smaller class sizes and unique educational opportunities afforded to them by the school location and interaction with local businesses. Students and parents also benefit from the creative scheduling that the schools offer by working around the parents' schedules. 19p.

This paper discusses environmental preference, particularly related to the design of children's museums. It explains that preference for an environment leads to motivation to interact with the environment, which leads to learning. It lays out several design principles: (1) involve children in the process of children's museum design in a way that goes beyond tokenism and captures children's environmental preferences; (2) provide diverse levels in complexity of size, shape, color, and textures of learning environments to appeal to the broadest range of preferences in children; (3) provide clear connections between indoor and outdoor learning environments through the use of windows, functional covered porches, and other transitional strategies to accommodate preference for outdoor spaces; (4) provide a coordinated range of colors in indoor designed environments that reflects as much as possible the natural environment; (5) provide access to natural daylight through windows, skylights, full-spectrum lighting, and especially through direct access to natural daylight by the use of outdoor learning spaces; (6) provide increased levels of fresh air intake and increased ventilation rates in buildings, and provide operable windows for occupants to vary the rate of ventilation for comfort; (7) provide resource-rich activities within well-defined spatial configurations to facilitate desired learning behaviors; and (8) provide learning environments that are physically open-ended and composed of "loose parts" to encourage exploration, discovery, and experimentation appropriate for all developmental ages. 6p.

Charter-school leaders are finding many ways to solve the housing problem. This paper examines practices that may offer guidance to those starting new schools. For example, charter schools have found homes in museums, YMCAs, restored schoolhouses, and even in a moviehouse, and some have formed productive partnerships with businesses. Given a per-pupil allotment for facilities, some schools have found they can lease or fix up space on a pay-as-you-go basis. Others have had to finance at least part of the costs, but there are a variety of options for doing so.

A two-issue volume presents articles describing innovative schools, classrooms, and alternative learning arrangements found in some of today's schools. Issue One contains three articles offering glimpses of an elementary school committed to the Core Knowledge curriculum of E. D. Hirsch, a renovated school devoted to early childhood learning programs, and a middle school experiential learning program. The three articles contained in the second issue highlight the Minnie Howard School in Alexandria, Virginia, a learning environment exclusively for ninth graders; The Center for Communications, a high-tech learning environment in Henrico County; and a case study of Gildersleeve Middle School in Newport News that follows the school's creation from initial conception to final construction. 64p.

In August 1993 the Des Moines (Iowa) community created a new type of neighborhood school by placing an elementary school close to where the parents work, rather than where they live. This school, the Downtown School, serves a diverse community of students, emphasizes parental involvement, and implements current research in education. This report reviews its first 2 years of operation. Founding principles for the Downtown School were that it would require parent involvement and communication and that it would have small classes, with an integrated curriculum in multiage classes featuring experience-based active learning. A look at the program after 2 years shows that the school has been welcomed by the community and has created effective partnerships with the business community. Its self-evaluation efforts have targeted areas for improvement. Although the Downtown School has been open for only a brief time, student achievement measured by standardized tests has been above national and district averages. 109p.

This collection of 13 articles describes informal learning environments that occur outside traditional school settings; covers research-supported strategies for helping both students and teachers engage with and master concepts in school subject matter; and reviews school reform and the current knowledge about what practices and principles are most likely to result in successful school changes. 378p.

Presents an essay concluding that the world needs a vision of a "learning city" for the future, and then focuses on six themes that illustrate the connections between education and aspects of economic development: 1) investing to enhance the built environment; 2) modernizing and improving school buildings; 3) making more of educational facilities; 4) adult learners in colleges and schools; 5) the place of vocational education; and 6) uncoupling schools and buildings. Subsequent chapters examine families, poverty, race, ethnicity, and crime; planning issues in creating the learning city, with emphasis on the role of government; and nine case studies about the renovation of urban schooling in Australia, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, the Netherlands, France, the United States, and Scotland. (Includes 128 references.) 156p.

Educators have long acknowledged that not all learning occurs in a classroom. This paper describes an innovative education program in Minnesota in which the educational facility was built in a dedicated space at the Mall of America. The school is an arrangement between Mall of America management, which wanted to create a sense of community, and the Bloomington School District, which wanted to develop an innovative educational program. This paper describes the program's governance and alliances, finances, facilities, technology, public relations, curriculum, and evaluation process. 11p.

The private-sector provision of school infrastructure in the form of satellite schools is discussed in this paper. Following the introduction, section 2 presents a case study of Satellite Learning Centers in Dade County, Florida, in which the schools operate as public schools on business worksites. The host-business, American Bankers Insurance Group (ABIG) contributes land, building space, and some operating expenses; the school district supplies the rest--teachers, supplies, curriculum, and administration. Benefits include the savings of millions of dollars in public school infrastructure and transportation costs, increased student performance and attendance, improved student/parent/teacher interaction, decreased absenteeism among working parents, and greater teacher career advancement opportunities. Section 3 describes the Hidden Valley Satellite School, a partnership between Hewlett-Packard Co. and the Santa Rosa City School District. The fourth section outlines potential benefits of satellite schools, which offer a solution to school overcrowding at a minimal cost relative to other options. An obstacle is the Field Act, California's seismic-safety standards code that prevents satellite schools from occupying existing office buildings. 73p.

This survey presents school facility funding, technology, and non-traditional programs currently used in the public school educational systems of twelve states. Each state reveals its current appropriation, funding source(s), local matching ratio, eligibility criteria, priority factors and weights, use of space standards, periodic needs assessment, technology enhancements, and non- traditional use of public school facilities. Appendices contain a detailed list of priority factors and weights for Alaska, Florida, and Maine; and the survey form used to gather the data. 39p.

This study explores examples of buildings that are recycled for use by schools. It presents a methodology for planning such endeavors and also offers an evaluation of this particular approach to acquiring necessary learning space. The study explores such factors as educational program, physical environment, building codes, cost and financing, legal issues, administrative processes and time, and political and social concerns. The case studies were derived from school visits, interviews, and examinations of files. 362p.

Planners are turning to alternative means for solving critical space needs without compromising educational, protection, safety, and health standards. This publication was developed to provide a guide for educators and planners who are seeking to utilize an innovation in educational facilities -- "found" space. The planner cannot easily mold existing space to fit needs; rather, the planner must work within the parameters of space originally designed to meet entirely different requirements. This publication examines the planning principles used to achieve this objective and, through a series of questions, assists in an evaluation of potential space for conversion. The author also describes outstanding examples of successful conversions. 44p.

Reports on turning discarded, overlooked, and inexpensive spaces or objects into useful places and things for child-oriented learning in preschools or day care centers. The document is organized into five sections: 1) Types of Places which demonstrates the wide variety of unlikely structures that have been converted into viable educational spaces; 2) Furniture and Equipment which features imaginative use of manufacturers’ “throwaways”; 3) Outdoor Spaces which points up the use of rooftops and vacant lots for solutions to urban play space problems; 4) Outdoor Things; and 5) How to Go About It which provides sources for help, licensing requirements and codes, and a checklist of found items. A bibliography and a directory of the centers described in the report are included. 72p.

Explores a range of alternative solutions to provide school space in the most economical fashion. These alternatives include: 1) using "found space" in existing school buildings or non school buildings; 2) extending the school day and/or school year; 3) allowing students to be away from the classroom a significant part of the school day; 4) using new building materials, construction techniques, and project delivery methods; 5) sharing the cost of new schools through joint occupancy (public-private use) and partners (public-public use). 85p.

Investigates the possibilities and limitations of converting industrial and commercial structures into educational facilities through the vehicle of a “case study” of a six-story loft building. The study is divided into four parts: 1) description of the spatial and structural characteristics of the building; 2) analysis of the building’s capacity to meet general design criteria for teaching spaces; 3) outline of the program for an intensive learning center; and 4) design proposal incorporating specific design recommendations. The study revealed great potentialities which more than offset the limitations. 40p.

Reviews the conversion of a 1951 Brooklyn courthouse into two 500-student high schools, citing issues typical of buildings from that era and how they were solved.

Advises on conversion of buildings into schools, emphasizing limiting the project scope, setting a reasonable timeline, planning for features to restore and compromise, and contingency planning and funding.

Profiles this Pennsylvania environmental education center built by the Boy Scouts of America. Building statistics, a list of the project participants, cost details, floor plans, and photographs are included.

Profiles the Cedar River Watershed Education Center, which teaches Seattle area students about their water supply, the watershed they live in, the water cycle, and conservation. Building and landscape features, as well as portions of the educational program are discussed.

Profiles this elementary school for special needs students, created within a former racquetball club. Former courts were converted into classrooms by inserting a floor at mid-level. Building statistics, a list of project participants, and photographs are included.

Profiles New York City's Bathgate Education Complex, a warehouse space converted into three high schools. The article focuses on how the one-story structure was reinforced with exposed structural steel to support a second floor.

Advises on conversion of non-school buildings into schools. Suggestions detailed are: 1) Do thorough building and site investigation. 2) Avoid low ceilings. 3) Target structures with adequate water utilities. 4) Test the structural capacity of the existing foundation. 5) Make sure that the existing structure can be secured. 6) Make the most of daylighting. 7) Check the roof for structural stability and thermal performance. 8) Know when to say no to conversions.

Reviews options for conversion of non-school buildings into educational facilities. Advantages may include the proximity of an existing building over a remote new building, along with the advantage to the community of filling vacant and possibly distressed real estate. The challenges may be many as well, such as structural, utility, and daylight deficiencies. It may not be less expensive to convert an existing building than to build new, and the non-residential site may present transportation and safety challenges. Detailed examples of three successful adaptive reuse projects are included.

Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin takes full advantage of its Lake Michigan site, but sensitive design and thoughtful sustainable features help it tread lightly on the city's waterfront. The 120,000-sf building is designed as an educational facility devoted to children, science, technology, and invention. The museum includes several exhibits and laboratories focused on computers, communications, electronics, robotics, and chemistry and physics.

Decisions on where schools are built and how much land they occupy are gradually beginning to reflect New Urbanism’s belief in the importance of physically fitting the schools into their communities. This discusses school siting, minimum acreage requirements for schools, and using non-traditional structures and sites.

Profiles this temporary school building created within an abandoned K-Mart, which can be converted to house students at any grade level. Building statistics, a list of the project participants, cost details, floor plans, and photographs are included.

Profiles this Bronx charter elementary school, built into a former meatpacking factory and daylit via abundant skylights.

Describes efforts in Lisbon to better integrate children with disabilities at the primary school level, focusing on the restoration of a historic mansion specifically for this purpose.

Profiles a new vocational school in New Caledonia, British Columbia, built within a former big-box retail structure, resulting in a building within a building. Plans, photographs, building statistics, and a list of project participants are included.

Advises on assessing, renovating, and reusing older buildings for educational use, with particular attention to adaptive reuse of vacant commercial structures as schools, which may help anchor stressed neighborhoods.

Profiles six creative solutions that made school architecture out of abandoned, unused, or under-used spaces in this urban setting. Recovery of spaces from rooftops, above courtyards, in abandoned buildings, and within a new condominium are highlighted.

Describes two adaptive reuse projects that created schools in former commercial facilities. Nine issues to address when considering adapting a building for educational use are included.

Describes the Wake County Public School Systems steps to address rapid growth in their school population, including modular campuses, ninth grade centers, adaptive reuse of commercial structures, and a year-round calendar.

Describes planning concepts implied by alternative schools, such as use of existing infrastructure, community alliances, and environmental responsiveness.

Describes the conversion of empty "big box" stores into schools, particularly in regions with high immigration and double-digit growth in annual school spending. The typical advantages of these conversions are their appropriate size, convenient locations, abundant parking, and structural configuration. Disadvantages include infrastructure inadequacies, due diligence difficulties, daylighting, wayfinding, and poor image.

Describes the conversion of an abandoned post office into a school, with the assistance of University of New Mexico architecture students mentoring school’s student body.

Describes successful urban schools created in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Raleigh, citing how they were sited and funded, the community services they provide, and the constituencies they serve.

These days in New York City, it is possible to find a public school almost anywhere that can hold a few hundred students and accommodate a redesign for classrooms and a cafeteria. They are popping up all over, in the most unexpected places: an old salami factory in the Bronx, the boxy remains of a defunct department store in Harlem, a warehouse vacated by Sotheby's on the Upper East Side, the 13th floor of a downtown skyscraper. And the Department of Education plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next five years creating more of them, turning on its head the traditional - some say outdated - notion of what a public school should be.

For a number of school districts and higher-education institutions that find themselves in the difficult spot of needing to build schools in areas with scarce available land, using sites that once housed "big-box" retailers has proven to be a solution. This not only meets space needs, but also revitalizes communities. Includes a look at the nation's largest retailer--Wal-mart--and the vacant stores it lists as currently for sale.

Describes Dearborn's Henry Ford Academy, a 450-student high school situated within an 90-acre site containing a museum and 82 historic buildings. The inclusion of the facilities and grounds within the curriculum is described, and an interview with architect Steven Bingler follows.

Case study of The Village at Indian Hill in Pomona, California, a converted regional shopping center that contains new schools, adult education and training programs, a child development center, a conference center, community services, and retailers.

Cites several examples of school facilities in non-traditional settings, integrated into and shared with the community. Benefits to land use, transportation, and community recreational opportunities are detailed.

In South Central Los Angeles, a partnership between the district and a state-owned science museum will result in a neighborhood elementary school with a math- and science-focused curriculum and as a resource center for educators and the local community. The Science Center School project combines an early 20th-century armory with a two-story addition. The $48-million project draws on FEMA funds, several state financing sources, and QZABs (qualified zone academy bonds), a U.S. Dept. of Education program that allows disadvantaged school districts to issue interest-free bonds. The project has no land acquisition costs, since the district will lease the school from the state.

Case study of the Media and Technology Charter High School (MATCH) in Boston, Massachusetts. The new charter school was designed as a renovation and adaptive reuse of a concrete-framed building. The three-story structure was built in 1918 as a showroom for the Lincoln Motorcar Company, but for the last three decades has housed a retail auto parts store. The building's historical integrity and aesthetics were preserved while a functional, high-tech, and cost-effective green space was created. The school installed 22 kW of solar photovoltaic panels on its roof to provide electricity to the building. The school building has won awards from the 2003 Northeastern Green Building Awards, the 2002 Boston Preservation Alliance Achievement Awards, and DesignShare's 2002 Awards for Innovative Learning Environments.

Outlines design issues related to K-12 schools built on small urban sites, including parking, setbacks, bulk and height restrictions, service access drives, shared facility use, and school building structures in an urban context. Design solutions proposed ard based on Seattle Public Schools 1995-2008 Building Excellence (BEX) school construction program.

Describes education programs conducted at this museum, involving parents and their preschool children. Includes two references. (Scroll down in PDF for article.)

Faced with overcrowded classrooms, Lee County, Florida officials bought two vacant Kmart buildings. Renovating them will be slightly less expensive than building new ones, and since the structures are already in place they can open sooner. The vacant Kmart buildings were bought for $11.6 million, and officials expect site work, remodeling and furniture to cost an additional $17.4 million. They are supposed to open by August 2005.

Charter schools have proven an effective tool for urban economic development by reviving communities, providing services, and renovating older buildings. Because charter schools are not provided with a building, they are purchasing or leasing vacant, dilapidated properties and renovating them into spectacular new schools and community centers. Includes several case studies in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Newark.

Describes the converstion of an industrial shed into a secondary school for troubled girls. Three courtyards were cut into the building to admit light and air. Glazed corridors, alcoves, and a central multi-purpose room are easily supervised.

Describes three adaptive reuse higher education projects: Rhode Island College created administrative space from institutional residential buildings; Pratt converted a loft building into laboratory, teaching, and exhibit space; and Capital Community College (Hartford) converted an historic retail building into teaching and administrative space.

Discusses a project that transformed an abandoned, run-down industrial bakery into a learning center for at-risk, pre-kindergarten students in Champaign, Illinois. The design made the corridors resemble streets and staff offices resemble homes, establishing a sense of neighborhood.

This reviews two recent books concerning the research about children's learning in museums.

Describes a high school designed to make students act and feel like professionals as they study in the context of a retail store, conference center, courtroom, architecture studio, and medical offices. Students from this high-poverty district may attend the academy full- or part-time. The school strives to steer students in to the most promising employment sectors, so the building is flexible enough to respond to job market shifts.

Describes adaptive reuse of college buildings, which involves reconfiguring existing buildings for entirely new functions, including its benefits. Examples include Bartlett Hall at the University of Chicago, Annenberg Hall and Locker Chambers at Harvard University, Goodrich Hall at Williams College, and Sarratt Student Center at Vanderbilt University.

Describes the title school building , including the educational context and design goals. Includes information on the architects, manufacturers/suppliers, and construction team; a general building description; and a commentary on the design. Also includes the floor plan and photographs. This private, grades 7-12 school for 325 students had outgrown its former cramped quarters in a pair of city townhouses and expanded to a ten-acre residential site in the northwest section of Washington, D.C. The new site included an historic 1937 Art Deco residence that occupied the crest of a hill overlooking adjacent public parkland. [Free subscriber registration is required.]

Describes the title school building by SPF:a, including the educational context and design goals. Includes information on the architects, manufacturers/suppliers, and construction team; a general building description; and a commentary on the design. Also includes the floor plan and photographs. A 1940's brick warehouse provides the setting for this sparse and tasteful progressive learning environment. The organization of the school is a series of interconnected and interwoven elements organized by the existing structural components of the warehouse. [Free subscriber registration is required.]

Describes the title school building by Daly Genik Architects, including the educational context and design goals. Includes information on the architects, manufacturers/suppliers, and construction team; a general building description; and a commentary on the design. Also includes the floor plan and photographs. The middle school is housed in an 8,500-square-foot, one-story former warehouse and an adjacent 10,500-square-foot, three-story former office building. [Free subscriber registration is required.]

This explores how schools can help define and enliven urban places. Includes a description of the Cities of Learning Project in Paterson, New Jersey, led by urban designer Roy Strickland, that envisions a network of learning facilities – schools, libraries, arts groups, mobile computer labs – all turned loose to infiltrate the economic and social life of a mid-size industrial city that desperately needs to reverse its fortunes.

Describes the design of Wildwood School, an urban prep school in Los Angeles that reclaimed a warehouse, including the educational context and design goals. Includes building plans and photographs.

Discusses ways urban communities can improve neglected educational facilities, including converting existing commercial buildings into "new paradigm" schools and breaking large schools into small, specialized academies.

This features Century High School in Rochester, Minnesota notable for its wheelchair-friendly environment; the City of Learning in Patterson, New Jersey where all or certain floors of commercial buildings, factories, churches, and synagogues are becoming schools; the post-occupancy evaluation of Indian Trail Elementary School in Canal Winchester, Ohio; the Mary Scroggs Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where a top priority was to give teachers their own space, complete with computers, phones, desks, and storage; the sustainably-designed Roy Lee Walker Elementary School in Texas; the Sherman Oaks Community Charter School that was carefully designed and constructed to help K-6 students learn; and the Virtual High School in Forks, Washington,

This article discusses several schools in New York City that are sharing spaces either with other schools or with noneducational entities. Examples include shared spaces with community centers, the New York City Police Department's School Safety Division, housing projects, charter schools, drug treatment centers, and college campuses.

Describes how schools and universities are finding new uses for outmoded facilities, thereby saving on land and construction costs and in many cases preserving buildings that have achieved historical status in a community. Offers several examples.

Describes the design of the DeKalb Alternative School in Atlanta, Georgia, located in a renovated shopping center. Purchasing commercial land and renovating the existing building saved the school system time and money.

Describes ABA Studio/Andrew Bartle Architects' transformation of a narrow row house into a school for learning-disabled students in New York City. It required substantial renovation and expansion to accommodate the program, which called for classrooms for instruction and therapy, recreational areas, an assembly room, and support spaces. Describes the title school building, including the educational conte