Spring Branch ISD—Bunker Hill Elementary
Architects: Stantec
The project replaced a 1950s one-story elementary school with a new two-story facility for 750 students. The existing school remained operational while the new facility was built on site, requiring careful planning to avoid disruption to the occupied campus. The design was shaped by the district’s educational specifications along with community engagement meetings resulting in the following guiding principles: open and welcoming; embedded in the natural setting; flexible, collaborative, and forward-thinking 21st century learning environment. The new facility transformed the existing campus of separate buildings into connected grade-level learning communities under one roof, with the library at the heart of the campus and multiple flex spaces connected to the outdoors.
Design
“The school’s design used four guiding principles:
- Open & welcoming feeling – Inviting to & inclusive of the diverse community
- Embedded within natural setting – Connected with views & access to walkable neighborhood
- Student-centered & parent involved – Celebrating excellence, achievement & tradition
- Flexible, collaborative & forward thinking – Responsive to teaching & learning objectives over time
The design inspiration came from the school’s site & local community context
- Prioritizes connection to outdoors
- Recreates the valued open outdoor layout of the old school & preserves wooded environment
- Uses a natural material palette/biophilic patterns
The school is organized around student learning from every corner of campus. The versatile layout includes flexible elements to keep the school evolving with the student body’s needs as years progress
- Centers library as the heart of the school, providing direct access to resources
- Organizes classroom wings to allow for fluctuating grade level population swings
- Provides intuitive site & building circulation, including color for wayfinding
The learning community is designed to support teachers & students with flexible spaces
- Provides an outdoor learning plaza that doubles as space for visiting parents
- Learning courtyards between the classroom wings extend teaching to the outdoors
- Features flexible classroom Furniture suitable to each grade level that is easy to rearrange for collaborative work
The new school design is flexible with both educational needs & the growing community in mind
- Provides flex zones & collaborative areas along the main path, including dedicated areas for each grade level classroom wing
- Enhances the library with flexible Furniture to support variety of individual & group spaces
- Serves the students & community with a multipurpose room for events located at the front of the school”
Value
“The project team took care to assess student, district, & community needs & embed value in every decision.
- Integrates flex spaces into each learning community to support all learners.
- Enhances campus security.
- Reimagines classrooms to connect to outdoors.
- Delivered an on-site replacement to keep school in session during construction.
The school benefits go beyond the improved educational environment. With this project, the campus invites the students & community to enjoy amenities they never had
- Provides new public spaces:
- Versatile multipurpose room
- Secure outdoor play areas
- Integrated flex spaces
- Spacious dining commons
- Includes areas for student-parent engagement”
Wellness
“Welcoming, student-centered, inclusive—these recurring themes drove the school’s planning & design process. The path to this vision created flexible spaces focused on wellbeing.
- Features biophilic material palette.
- Creates a parklike environment with outdoor courtyards.
- Enhances cafeteria & dining commons.
- Provides spaces for parent/student interactions.
- Offers secure enclosures.
A good school equips students with knowledge to succeed, no matter how they learn. This elementary school provides diverse tools & spaces for K-5 learners.
- Flexible Furniture & environments for individual & collaborative learning to serve all students, including 21% emergent bilingual/English learners.
- Makerspace Advances
- Provides natural daylighting in academic spaces.
With an appreciation for nature & outdoor activity, the community favored biophilic options. The school’s wooded site inspired the design both inside & out.
- Creates a natural warm feeling with wood finish to the palette of materials.
- Design mimics elements found in nature, such as veins in a leaf.
- Provides a parklike setting with outdoor Learning Plaza, supporting individual & group study.
- Indoor spaces offer views through the trees with windows that fill the school with natural light.
The school offers secure indoor & outdoor recreation & learning spaces tailored to K-5 grade students. Connections to the adjacent public park enhance the outdoor options.
- Provides direct access to the covered play area from the gym.
- Features a variety of outdoor spaces, including large open play areas, a playground, a running track, & bike racks.
- Three courtyards with hardscape & landscape support learning, socializing, & connecting with nature.
The community asked for connected areas where students are secure to move about freely.
- Provides a larger cafeteria & dining commons & enables parents to have lunch with their student.
- Multipurpose student dining & large group assembly directly connects to the outdoor Learning Plaza.”
Community
“Parents, staff, & community members comprised the 30-person Project Advisory Team (PAT) to represent stakeholders’ culture & diversity.
- Involved numerous PAT engagement presentations while navigating Covid-19 restrictions with online meetings (2 in person meetings + 4 virtual meetings)
- Used local history of former lumber yard & the community’s wooded setting to inspire the design.
- Architectural expression blends into surrounding neighborhood/context while providing the school its own identity
- Part of welcoming the new design involved integrating valued existing elements into the updated campus
- Repurposes existing artwork, including a lion statue, plaques, & butterfly sculptures
- Glass entry vestibule at front entry extends an inviting welcome to visitors & provides a secure entry process for visitors, staff, & students
- Multi-purpose room located at the front of the school serves the community as an election polling location & event space”
Planning
“Project Advisory Team (PAT) participated in the planning process from the beginning, collaborating to define project goals & overall direction.
- Evolved the implementation by helping identify important concepts, including a blended orthogonal & organic site plan
- In person & virtual design meetings took place during Covid-19 pandemic
- PAT participants included students, PTA, parents, school officials, & representatives for the local HOAs, Villages, & businesses
Key goals included keeping the school running during construction & providing more room to grow.
- On-site replacement kept the existing school operational while the new facility was built, requiring careful design & construction planning to minimize disruption to students & staff
- New school has space for 750 students
- Detailed construction phasing coordination planned to limit disruption to instruction & optimize the learning environment transformation to support the District’s educational delivery model
Added Value:
- District met the City’s special planning & zoning criteria (building height, setbacks, view site lines) while building on an occupied campus with limited area of 13 acres within residential neighborhood
- District partnered with City to include a water well & additional city detention to alleviate stormwater management needs & improve the community resiliency from major storm events”
School Transformation
“Evolving a 1950s school that consisted of multiple buildings with exterior walkways into a two-story campus supporting 21st-century learning required major changes. The project team brought the new design to life while honoring its past.
- Features a spacious & light-filled cafeteria & dining commons highlighting a refreshed lion artwork
- Emphasizes the library as the heart of the campus, including Jenga wall with view windows from the lobby to library
- Creates a large outdoor learning courtyard connecting the library & dining commons flex spaces to the outdoors
- Provides intimate outdoor courtyards connecting each learning community to its unique outdoor learning space
- Hybrid solution blends orthogonal & organic elements
- Provides outdoor walkways & collaborative flex spaces adjacent to learning communities.
- Provides new school graphics reinterpreting the existing school character. For example, existing children silhouettes at the old entrance were reimagined into the lobby artwork in new school.”
Star of Distinction Category Winner