South View Middle School
A familiar materials palette knits new and old together, and reinforces the identity of the district campus. Brick blends derived from the existing walls are scaled up to mediate the size of the new big box performance spaces. The prominent metal roof edge of the old school building is recast as a ribbon of metal, folded to define new spaces and a new dialogue among the family of building parts, the building and its surroundings. The South View Middle School addition and renovation provides a new theater, gym, and pool.
Mixing
The metal ribbon at the exterior transforms from a pronounced roof edge to become a boundary for gathering spaces inside and outside. Linear organization of the new public entries provides a contiguous mixing space that promotes interaction between the three new large venues. Moving along this line provides opportunities to see, hear, and feel activities within semi-private spaces inside and connect with the outdoor public spaces of the campus beyond. The ribbon travels throughout the lobby supported by brick as it captures views and daylight within its folds. New lobbies offer pickup and drop-off areas for students and easy after-hours access to events from the new parking lot. New pedestrian paths pull the campus buildings and parking lots together, activating the interior of the campus. Mixing spaces use glass to link inside to outside and showcases the activities beyond.
Re-purposing
Renovation recycles a number of existing spaces for new purposes, a small theater became science labs, music rooms transform into a drama and fine art suite, the pool and gymnasium create a new music suite, and locker rooms changed into various support spaces. In addition, a new internal circulation loop allows students easy access to all new and existing areas of the building. In the music suite, the existing wood gymnasium floor is re-used and clerestory glazing is added to provide ample daylight to internal spaces.
Concrete Acoustics
The new theater provides rich, warm texture for students and neighborhood residents to create an important shared resource for the community. Theatrical lighting interacts with metal, concrete, and wood to evoke emotion in the space. The metal scrims grain is oriented to present its solid face to the audience for screening, its open face to the stage and technical level for viewing. Lit from below, the scrim resembles a rippled water surface and is opaque; lit from behind the scrim disappears and the catwalks are revealed. Theatrical lighting interacts with the precast concrete walls that dematerialize into cones and floating bubbles. Parallel geometry in this theater requires acoustic manipulation. The concretes pattern responds by diffusing various acoustic frequencies with 2 deep cones of varied diameter.