Schools As The New Place Makers

http://archplanbaltimore,blogspot.com/2014/08/schools-as-place-makers.html

Historic one-room schoolhouse in Montana
distinctlymontana.com

Hello Everyone:

School is back in session and it is a good time to reflect on educational institutions as place makers. Think about for a minute, school is the place where like-minded people come together for the purposes of exchanging opinions and information.  School is also a place where members of the surrounding community can gather for social and athletic events such as football games and bake sales.  In his blog archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com, architect, urban designer, and writer Klaus Philipsen examines how schools act as place makers in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, how they can affect urban development, and what are the obstacles.

Downtown Baltimore, Maryland
robertmcclintock.com

Klaus Philipsen begins with these statistic, "The nation spent over thirteen billion dollars on school construction in 2013.  In my area, Baltimore City and Baltimore County combined have earmarked over 2.1 billion dollars for their ten-year construction programs...To understand how much school systems are players in our metros, consider this: Baltimore County schools alone transport 75,000 kids every day in their own buses, a ridership that represents 1/3 of the public transit passengers of the entire MTA, buses, and rail combined."  These are impressive numbers when stop and think about it.  The City and County of Baltimore school systems spend a little two billion dollars to build or improve schools and infrastructure.  Further, Mr. Philipsen cites, "With almost 30,000 employees, the two Baltimore school systems (City and County) are by far the largest employers in Maryland."  Both school systems operate a "Combined 350 buildings, as many as the entire downtown of a mid-size city."  These nuggets of information prompt Mr. Philipsen to ask, "Shouldn't these mega organizations be considered highly important not only for education but also economic development, urban renewal, and urban space.

Booker T. Washington Middle School
Baltimore, Maryland
commons.wikimedia.org

With all the attention public schools get: good, bad, or indifferent, schools as integral parts of urban economic development, renewal, and place making are not usually in the conversation mix.  The result, according to Mr. Philipsen, is "...schools frequently undo places instead of making them, especially when they need more room and move out of their established spots."  It does not take a lot of effort to find reasons why school are rarely, if at all, thought of as a key component of urban development.

One reason schools are not part of the urban development equation is that they are separate entities; distinct and set apart from urban development agencies. In a desire to separate partisan politics from educate, Mayors and City Councils generally have little influence over how schools are administered apart from some control over the building.  Mr. Philipsen uses the example of the capital budgets of schools.  In most cases, it is really a little on the nebulous side as to where the money comes from or for that matter, where it disappears to.  School systems seem to have a life of their own and exactly how their bureaucracy works differs from state to state; district to district.  Elected or appointed school boards, schools whose buildings are owned by the municipality, does the funding for all this come from property taxes, state budgets, or all of the above.  The whole situation really makes for a opaque and frequently misunderstood way to run schools.  Naturally, the role schools play in the urban design process is not even a tertiary the minds of all parties concerned.

Sinai Akiba Academy
Los Angeles, California
Yours truly went here
dworskyarchitecture.com

Instead of thought provoking debates on how a school, public or private, can play a role in urban development, the oft-raucous discussions center around whether or not to provide tablet computers to the students, the merits of "Common Core," how to make up for deficiencies in science and math, boosting students' self confidence, and how more physical education and better cafeteria food can fight childhood obesity.  All important issues that take precedence over the function of schools within the urban design paradigm.  As someone who has worked in schools and have a parent who taught for over forty years, I can most definitely understand all of these concerns.  Like Klaus Philipsen, I can see how the obesity issue can lead to place making, especially in my neighborhood with a variety of public and private schools; I wonder why the students cannot walk to school?

Price's Fork Elementary School
Blacksburg, Virginia
spiritfm.com

The other side of the place making story is the departure of a school from its community that it once anchored, leaving a blank space between communities.  This is part of the story of sprawl, the prominent development pattern in the post-War era both in the United States and abroad.  Mr. Philipsen shares the story of his grandfather the onetime mayor of a small town who, according to family history, boasted as his biggest achievement abolishing one room schools in three minuscule towns in favor a brand new school shared by all three on a green field reachable by bus.  His grandfather would relate on his late milestone birthdays how the town elders never tired of telling how this "forward looking man brought progress to the communities in the shape of a school kitchen, a cafeteria, and even a library..."

The above story is one example of similar stories being played out across the United States to this very day.  In the small town of Price's Fork, outside of Blacksburg, Virginia, the local elementary school debuted big, sprawling, single story educational villages located on the fields that once separated both communities.  Blacksburg took up much of the green bulwark with two rambling compounds: a Middle and High school next to each other on a parcel greater than the town center. The learning complex is representative of similar stories being played out across the county to this very day.  The educational village is a novel idea of using school as a place making mechanism because it can bring together students, teachers, parents, and administrators from smaller communities and establish a site based on common educational values.  At this point, both Price's Fork and Blacksburg have grown together, forming a collective identity in the process.

Catonsville Elementary School
Catonsville, Maryland
catonsville.exploremd.us

Sprawl is not the only detriment to community development place making.  School shootings have created a bunker-like mentality in which security concerns trump any thoughts of fostering community openness. Immigration and demographic shifts relating to the baby boomer "echo" and their children have made centrally located school irrelevant.  One example, the Baltimore County schools, plagued by overcrowded elementary schools, resorted to making a complex set of bargains in which several historic school buildings and community centers would be razed and replaced by more efficient and cost-effective new construction.  Such is the case in Catonsville and its recently revived main street, which was being threatened with the demolition of its 1912-era elementary school, the largest and most important character defining historic building of the central core.

Henderson Hopkins School
East Baltimore, Maryland
e-architect.co.uk

Klaus Philipsen reports, "The relationship of school and community is increasingly recognized not necessarily for  urban design but for its value to education itself."  Suffice it to say that when schools leave their communities, the relationship between the two suffers greatly.  Mr. Philipsen cites The Enterprise paper "Reconnecting Schools and Neighborhoods:

Families, schools, and neighborhoods also influence each other.  Families can reinforce to detract from school activities and schools can influence family behavior by encouraging certain educational practices within the home.  Neighborhoods can influence families by providing access to jobs, a sense of physical safety, and social networks.  In addition, advantaged families tend to select prosperous neighborhoods where other affluent families send their children to schools.  The influence of families, schools, and neighborhoods are interconnected, making it exceptionally difficult to quantify the independent effect of each on children's academic performance.  Nevertheless, all three forces clearly play a role in shaping children's outcomes. (http://www.abtassociates.com/reports/64701.pdf)

East Harlem Center for Living and Learning
perkingseastman.com

Big cities present another set of challenges in dealing with sprawl.  The challenge, especially in land locked cities, is finding room to spread out.  In previous incarnations, urban public schools have been these low-slung windowless buildings devoid of any real architectural machinations, guided solely by functionality.  The result is these buildings are not exactly loved and in deep need of rehabilitation while their multi-story counterparts intended to be civic landmarks, continue to be proud bearers of community pride even if the interiors could use some attention.  A 2013 exhibit, "The Edgeless School," presented many great urban school that opened up into their surrounding communities.

Diagram of a community investment zone
archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com

Klaus Philipsen returns to Baltimore City writing, " Baltimore City, then present an instructive example for what community-based schools can be, especially with the promise of an even more community-based approach for the upcoming capital invest program, a concept that fellow Baltimore architect David Hong dubbed Community Investment Zones."  School investment zones of this nature based on the billion dollar city construction program is mainly supported by AIA Baltimore City and has yet to come into fruition through focused improvement in the communities surrounding the schools.  In an editorial to the local newspaper, Mr. Hong writes, "True transformation will require a larger, more comprehensive vision for community development that addresses both the problem of failing neighborhoods and the problem of failing schools."

Baltimore Design School
Baltimore, Maryland
preservationnation.org

The problem of failing schools in failing neighborhoods is also a major issue the the Southern California communities of Historic South Central and Pacoima; it seems as if no one wants to do anything about it.  However, as Klaus Philipsen reports, someone in Baltimore is doing something about failing schools in failing neighborhoods.  Mr. Philipsen reports that two recently completed school in his hometown can serve as useful examples: the "public" magnet Baltimore Design School, a wonderful example (if I do say so myself) of adaptive reuse involving a former garment factory funded by a private developer and leased by the school system.  The Design School serves as a vital anchor in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.  Another sterling example of schools serving the community is the Henderson Hopkins School.

Scenic view of the Henderson Hopkins School
Rogers Architects
East Baltimore
hendersonhopkins.org

The Henderson Hopkins School is "...a brand new, state-of-the-art K-8 'community school located in what used to be the poorest area of Baltimore..." The school was partially funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Johns Hopkins School of Education; managed as a "Contract School."  A "Contract School" is a public school open to all students and operated by a private entity(es) under contract with the school district or system.  (http://www.cpu.edu)   Mr. Philipsen reports that both schools are fascinating as buildings, models for funding, and "examples of wide ranging partnerships and as trendsetters for new pedagogy."  However, for our purposes, with the aid of Mr. Philipsen's keen analysis, we can look at both institutions as exemplars of economic development and urban design contributors who act as anchors for their respective communities.  The goal for both schools is interaction with their host communities-go so far as to design in special entrances for the public to access the school even while classes are in session.  They differ from their suburban counterparts in that they are not metaphorically walled off from their host communities by parking lots and green fields.  Rather, the Henderson Hopkins School and the Baltimore Design School come right up to the street on a typical city block like any other building.

Another way schools can serve as place makers is the indirect strategy is the Seawall Development Project at Miller's Square.  The purpose of this development is providing affordable housing specifically for teachers.  The goal is to attract high quality teachers to the urban communities which have had difficulty hiring and retaining them.  Miller's Square housing ranges from rental units to starter homes for teachers and small business that serve them and the communities.  (http://www.millerssquare.com)

The resurgence of cities, growing interest in New Urbanist principles, changes in pedagogy, and the urge to create healthy communities all indicate a future where schools are once again proud beacons of progress for their communities.  Let's hope this is true.