Redesign Your School Athletic Pavilion | 2014 National High School Architecture Competition #2
|The following images show various aspects of Advanced Technologies Academy's current gym as well as its surrounding campus buildings and landscaping strategies. As one of the various magnet schools in the Las Vegas valley, Advanced Technologies Academy has been a highly distinguished school for many years with several national recognition's, which include two Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Awards in 2003 and 2011. A-Tech Focuses mainly on academics coupled with an intense integration of technology, offering several program areas for students, such as: Architecture Design, Engineering, Legal Studies, Business, Computer Graphics, Information Technologies, and Networking. While providing an ample supply of technological resources enhancing students education, since A-TECH does not have school sponsored teams it lacks a well-functioning athletic center and or gym space that inspires pride and school spirit to the overall student body.
The Design Problem: Besides being completely isolated from the rest of the school, A-TECH's current gymnasium is completely outdated and lacks many abilities of the criteria commonly found in most of the more modern high school gymnasiums. The structure of the building alone serves as a obvious example of how outdated the design considerations are when looking at the use of space. Another sure sign of outdated design is the window placement which does not take advantage of the sun's path to provide free light. Another major problem is the entrance and exit points are for most visitors difficult to find and poorly placed, causing confusion for guests and parents who attend various open houses and school wide promotion events throughout the year. Furthermore, the dull grey concrete building materials do are not aesthetically pleasing, Nor are the interior and exterior facades able to provide any visual interests and/or focal points to the design. Lastly, because this building was constructed years ago like many of the schools in the valley before population expanded into the numbers we have today, the size of each component within the gymnasium is outdated and does not comply with the changing demands of the increasing P.E. class sizes and required space for extracurricular events.
The Design Solution: In order to properly update the gym's facilities to a more logical orientation and reallocate the spaces within the current design to better match their desired functions, I propose to begin a completely new gymnasium: one that incorporates several aspects of modern design while simultaneously adhering to certain ADA regulations required for its potential users as well as several aspects of universal design that will ensure the sustainability of its overall life cycle, and its energy performance for countless years to come by using modern materials. The two story gymnasium will accommodate a several needs with the use of multi-purpose spaces including second floor classrooms, exercise rooms, locker rooms/restrooms, indoor track, gender specific weight rooms, racquetball courts, equipment storage, the actual gym itself, and other appropriate building attributes that a typical high school athletic gym would include. Exterior wise, the adjacent field and existing basketball courts will be incorporated to the design with well defined walkways and water-efficient landscaping strategies that will not only promote a healthy student-to-student interaction, but will also aid in combining each of A-TECH's other exterior spaces to work in harmony with one another to create a unique space that will ultimately provide A-TECH with a much more proud, school spirited, and healthier student population.
Comments
Very clear and concise stated problem and solution.