Westwood pk-8 School (click here for description)

The Westwood pk-8 School was completed at Moody/Nolan Inc. under lead Architect Chuck Paros for Dayton Public Schools. As a member of the design team for this Dayton School I worked closely with Chuck Paros from schematic design through construction documents.

These images are (spreads) taken from a limited run book Chuck and I designed and produced.

Program: Westwood Pk-8 is part of Dayton Public Schools Segment II projects. The program for 473 students and 65 staff, contains 72,450 square feet of classroom, administration, art, gym and special education spaces. The cafeteria is supported by a full service kitchen. The school district implemented expanded learning areas (ELA's) and required clear separation between learning communities.

Design: The site for the project is an urban park on Dayton's west side. The park, created as a center of the post WWII working class neighborhood, contains a recreation center earmarked for demolition. Site studies revealed a proportional similarity to Central Park of Manhattan. The placement of the new school in the southwest quadrant of the site allowed the half mall scheme to be realized.

The school's parti, utilizing the ELA concept, provides for three distinct learning communities and relies on town square planning thus permitting the placement of classroom spaces along the edge of the ELA's. By minimizing corridors and distributing additional circulation spaces to the dining room, the school capitalizes on opportunities for dynamic sectional qualities throughout the two-story structure. Thus, the plan is revealed in section and vice versa. The signature roof element is geometrically a continuously flat plane with a truncated fascia thus providing a natural slope above the main entrance.

www.moodynolan.com

www.parosAD.com

www.dps.k12.oh.us/cms