Project Description
To ease the transition from elementary school to junior high, Amarillo Independent School District is building 6th grade standalone campuses. Travis is designed for 400 6th grade students and is divided into three small learning communities (SLC) to support team teaching and provide more individualized attention. Each SLC has its own classroom wing, outdoor space, and collaboration space. The campus has ample natural daylight to make the school feel open and inviting. In response to the District’s desire for innovation, the design and input process focused on considering how classes will be taught 10 years from now rather than how classes are taught today. Based on this, all classrooms are set up for tablet technology and project based learning and teachers have access to a film room where they can videotape lessons and post them on their websites for “flipped learning.” The selected site was large and had great views, but had several challenges that had to be overcome and carefully managed as part of the construction budget. The site could only be accessed from one side, so access points were carefully planned to provide separation of bus and parent traffic. The site slopes sixty feet to a creek that the entire neighborhood feeds into for its storm drainage system, which made much of the site unusable, so only 13 acres of the 21 acre site were developed. The building was sited to create a one level campus arranged around a series of courtyards that provide views of activity occurring around the entire campus while also taking advantage of the surrounding views.