Honorable Mention - Top 10 Finalist - Lukas Sullivan - Redesign Your School Athletic Pavilion | 2014 National High School Architecture Competition #153
|Advanced Technologies Academy is a magnet school in Las Vegas, Nevada. With a large focus towards technology, most of the school’s funds and efforts go towards maintaining the academic merit of the school. Because of this, one thing that has been overlooked when planning the assets of the school is a practical athletic facility. The existing gymnasium is separated from the main building and has the approximate dimensions of 150’ X 150’. Being this size, the gym is not large enough to support the class sizes at the school. Also, the space planning of the gym is not efficient, meaning that it is hard for classes to use all of the allotted time in one period. An example of this is the distance between the men’s locker room and the field. The distance is much more than it needs to be and causes a huge inconvenience.
Problem to solve: The main focus of this design is to boost the efficiency of the building to where it is coherent with the needs of the classes. In the process, extra spaces and activities can be added to increase the amount of things that teachers can do with their PE classes. Building efficiency will also be taken into account because of its impact on the cost of the building. The goal overall is to create an open space for PE class and school assemblies.
Solution to problem: As stated previously, the main focus point is the open space where the basketball courts are placed. This is important because of the fact that this is where a majority of the activities will take place. Proper seating is placed to support basketball games as well as school assemblies. Locker rooms are placed in close proximity to the field to allow for efficiency of dressing out and starting class. The second level includes an open space where tables can be placed to create a learning environment as well as a lounging environment. Overall, the space planning was designed to keep related rooms close to each other. The structure of the building consists of basic vertical walls for the “wings” of the building, and curved walls for the back of the open area on the first level. The organic roof design is made to be modified upon the need for more or less shade in a specific area corresponding with the curtain systems. The curtain systems are oriented to let light in, but leave heat out. This helps in the Las Vegas climate because any amount of heat let into a building can affect its energy efficiency substantially. The field is being encompassed by the building because the building can serve as shading for that space. Also, the field is right by the locker rooms creating an efficient flow of students throughout the space.