LEARNING BY DESIGN magazine - Woods Cross High School

Site Plan - Entry plaza, childcare center playground, and seperate drop off added
Existing Overall Floor Plan - Poor circulation and lack of visible connection between pods
Remodeled Overall Floor Plan - Main Street axis, enhanced visibility and a variety of gathering spaces created
Commons and Cafeteria - An existing under utilized courtyard transformed into a lofty daylite gathering place.
Media Center - Colorful and daylite media center with access to outdoor seating.
The Concourse and Main Street - Direct axis cut through the building for simple wayfinding and visibility
Administration Wing - Enviornmental graphics framing the administration and counseling offices. Located at the concourse and main entry
Collaboration - Located on Main Street - informal collaboration space for students and teachers to instruct, study, and relax.
Commons Stage - Between classes or after school the commons stage provides a variety use for students.
Main Street - Internal classrooms borrowing daylight from the skylights of main street.
Culinary Arts - Welcoming instruction island, commercial kitchen and document camera ready to teach the next generation of the Iron Chef.
Maker Lab - Pull down power cords, colorful pin up space, instructional white walls. "Make What You Love"
Media Center and Wayfinding - Environmental graphics and transparency. The media center is not hard to find anymore.
Childcare Center - Multi-use niches, ready for reading, building blocks, and books.
Entry - Masonry marquee branding WXHS while reaching out with a skeletal canopy.
@Paul Richer / Richer Images
@Paul Richer / Richer Images
@Paul Richer / Richer Images

Woods Cross High School was designed in 1970 as a series of one-story, hexagonal pods connected by a network of double-loaded corridors. With no spatial hierarchy and few windows, the building was impossible to navigate. Even worse, it lacked gathering space for students and the real-world environments that support next generation learning.

This multi-phase addition and remodel, by GSBS Architects, transformed WXHS to support the Davis School District’s mission to cultivate a culture of learning and growth. The remodel provides new and expanded learning spaces, places to connect, study, make, and socialize. The design opens up the building to expose learning in action and bring in natural light. To improve critical adjacencies, several major components – media center, kitchen, cafeteria, main office and counseling center – were relocated within the school. A new “Main Street” was carved through the building to make wayfinding intuitive. Environmental graphics and colorful signage signify program areas and celebrate the school’s history.

The project includes new science, engineering, culinary arts, and maker labs, classrooms, media center, think tanks, childcare center, student commons, cafeteria, main office, counseling center and secure entry. The exterior was remodeled to give a new face and entry plaza to the school.

Woods Cross High School

Description

Project Location:
Woods Cross, UT

Architecture Firm
GSBS Architects
Salt Lake City,Utah
www.gsbsarchitects.com
GSBS ARCHITECTS https://www.facebook.com/GSBS-Architects-205784062791486/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/gsbs-architects
https://twitter.com/gsbsarchitects?lang=en

Photography By:
@Paul Richer / Richer Images

Woods Cross High School

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Description