Elementary Schools
West Point Elementary School
This replacement elementary school features learning studios arranged around collaboration hubs. The facility contains almost no fixed casework, allowing teachers to quickly arrange and rearrange the environment to support various learning and teaching styles. Future-ready concepts of flexibility and security ensure the school will stay relevant and innovative for generations to come.
The design uses the history and ecology of the Hudson River Valley to engage students and create a strong sense of engagement and belonging. Each of the five neighborhoods is named after a Native American tribe that once called the valley home. Interactive displays, wall graphics and art installations create learning tools that help students explore the past, present and future of their unique location.
Expertise
Client
Department of Defense Education Activity
Location
West Point Military Academy, NY
Scope
95,607 New SF
Challenges
Create a replacement school on an occupied site at West Point
Meet DoDEA's aggressive goals for 21st century school design and school security
Create an overarching design theme to engage students and provide them with a sense of place
West Point Elementary School
Each learning neighborhood includes a central hub with flexible furnishings and soft seating. Surrounding each hub are six learning studios, a makerspace and a teacher collaboration room.
West Point Elementary School
Design of the prekindergarten wing specifically meets the needs of young learners. A project center with a kitchenette gives students a place to get messy or to eat their snack during the day. The class also has direct access to a secure outdoor playground.
West Point Elementary School
The media center features a two-story topographical map of the Hudson River Valley. An interactive display connected to the map teaches students about the exploration and colonization of the valley by humans.
West Point Elementary School
Located outside the school's art room is a large mural that is a grayscale depiction of a painting by Frederic Church, one of the prominent Hudson River School artists. A writable glass surface covers the image, allowing students to draw directly on the surface and add their own creativity to the artwork.
West Point Elementary School
Learning tools extend to the outdoors, where demonstration solar panels and wind turbines teach students about the renewable energy strategies that will be needed to preserve the future of the Hudson River Valley.
The challenge of the West Point Elementary School project was to meld the incredible history of the campus with a next generation learning environment to serve the students and their families.
