American Architectural Foundation Holds First School Design Institute

The American Architectural Foundation (AAF) hosted the first School Design Institute on July 20-22 in Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. At this unprecedented event, mayors, superintendents, and other officials from Bridgeport, Connecticut; Manchester, New Hampshire; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and St. Louis, Missouri gathered for three days to candidly discuss the pressing school design challenges and opportunities in their respective cities. In addition, a resource team of design and planning experts was on hand to provide feedback, innovative suggestions, and commentary on current trends in school design.

The School Design Institute, modeled after the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, is an important part of AAF’s national school design initiative, Great Schools by Design. The program was created in response to the growing recognition that mayors and school leaders are seeking more constructive and creative ways to invest the almost $30 billion being spent annually on school construction and renovation in the United States.
The issues raised during the Institute covered a broad range of topics, including the siting of academic buildings, adaptive reuse of existing facilities, creating schools that serve as centers of community, creating environmentally sound schools, differences between the urban and suburban school, using partnerships to extend the scope of a school’s facilities, and others. These conversations, held at the renowned Brookings Institution in Washington, led to many exciting conclusions and new ideas that will help mayors, superintendents, and others foster dialog and innovation at the local level.

For many participants, the School Design Institute was a unique opportunity to confer, collaborate, and gather information. As Mayor John Fabrizi of Bridgeport, Connecticut said, “There are so many new design ideas and opportunities out there that Bridgeport can take advantage of. Working with other mayors, superintendents, experts, and the Foundation on school issues and getting concerted feedback has been a great experience for our team, and should prove beneficial to the health and welfare of our community.”

The collaboration of mayors, superintendents, and experts was another innovative feature of the School Design Institute. “In my 35 years in education, this is the first collaborative discussion I’ve seen about the design challenges that we face,” said Bob Moore, Superintendent of Oklahoma City Public Schools. “The rich feedback we’ve received from experts and our counterparts in other cities has been invaluable. The holistic approach to school design and educational issues in these meetings is unique.”

Participants in the School Design Institute included:

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Manchester, New Hampshire

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

St. Louis, Missouri

Resource Team

AAF’s funding and alliance partners share a common interest in improving America’s communities and built environment through good design.

Great Schools by Design partners

American Architectural Foundation website

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts that is administered by the American Architectural Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

 

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