Building the New Sandy Hook Elementary
An architect and a town design a school that embraces Newtown’s connection to the natural world.
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It was a high-profile and challenging project, and many architects who would not normally consider public works wanted to participate. But Svigals + Partners stood out. In an interview with the task force, Barry Svigals, a New Haven, Connecticut, architect, told the task force, “No one can tell you what this school should be like.” Svigals’ willingness to listen led the town to choose his firm, says Mitchell, who is also the parent of Sandy Hook Elementary graduates. “They just seemed exceptionally sensitive. They saw that this was not just a school but a part of the healing process,” he said.
“We specifically did not have a vision for the project,” Svigals told me. Mitchell explained that this approach was appealing. “They didn’t say, Here’s your school. It was a much more interactive process.”
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In meetings, one image popped up again and again, Svigals said: the entrance to the town and its seamless integration with the surrounding trees and landscape. Svigals and his team decided to draw on this feature in the facade of the school, which is set into the woods. In front of the school are two groves of trees. The facade of the school is on a soft curve, with the building’s wings reaching out like arms to embrace the children, Svigals explained. Spokes come off the main building to form “treehouses” or classrooms set in the woods.
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Full article & more renders:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/...esigning_and_building_the_newtown.single.html
