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schooldesigner.com is a website created to help elevate the level of K-12 school design around the world. The site is loaded with great school design ideas to improve schools, especially for the forgotten client – the student! This is the first of our monthly newsletters.

Schooldesigner.com is Launched!  An Interview With The Founder Schooldesigner.com is the brain child of Joel K. Sims, AIA. In this candid interview, Sims shares his ideas and goals for the future of schooldesigner.com. Why did you launch Schooldesigner.com? Sims: The Website was born out of a desire to help improve the quality of school design around the world. Unfortunately, a majority of the publications promoting school design have traditionally focused on revenue, and the quality has suffered. Schooldesigner.com takes a different approach. Our focus is on showcasing high-quality school designs. How will Schooldesigner promote better school design ? Sims: We are presenting school administrators, board members, teachers, students and anyone concerned with the quality of schools with examples of what great schools look like. We hope to educate and inspire these individuals with the projects on the website and with informative articles in our monthly newsletter. So, are you being selective on what you include ? Sims: Absolutely. It’s not easy telling someone that we’re not going to include their project or product. But Schooldesigner.com is about integrity – knowing that we need to stick to our core value of improving the quality of school design by showing the very best examples. Can you explain the three main areas of the site? Sims: The three distinct areas are Designer Elements, Designer Products and Designer Professionals. Essentially, they’re our unique way of highlighting school projects, school products and design professionals. Designer Elements break the components of a school into elements that focus on innovative ideas. The ideas are communicated visually through images, with text to describe them. It's like a big idea book for school design that really helps you get inspired for your next project. Designer Products highlight and promote tremendous products that are appropriate for K-12 school design. On each product page a link is provided to a product sponsor who carries that product. Designer Professionals showcase architects from around the world. Eventually, this section will also include engineers and specialty consultants. Visitors can be assured that the professionals are experienced with designing K-12 facilities. Why don't you show higher education projects on the site? Sims: First of all, let me say that I am a strong advocate of higher education. I speak at the national APPA (Facility Managers of Higher Education) Institute, so I understand the project type. That said, K-12 schools are not the same as colleges and universities. While there are many similarities between the two, the fact is that they have very different needs, and I believe that the two should remain in separate categories. So the site is strictly K-12? Sims: Yes. However, we tend to toss in some early childhood centers and an occasional children's museum, if it demonstrates a great learning environment for children. Where is Schooldesigner.com headed in the future? Sims: We just added some links that better connect Designer Professional pages to Designer Element pages.So, for example, when you look at a professional page you can see what elements they have posted. In each section, the architect’s logo is in the upper right hand corner to connect you directly to their Website. We will also be adding a section focused on green design. The other thing we’ll add is an archive of The Schooldesigner newsletters so people can look at back issues online. All in all, the future is very bright. The feedback we have received has been beyond expectations, which clearly shows that Schooldesigner.com is filling a need for excellent school design. How can professionals and product sponsors participate? Sims: There is a yearly membership fee to be featured on the site. The Website does not feature traditional advertising (banner ads, logos on the home page, etc.) because we feel it distracts from the site. We are always looking for quality companies to join us, and anyone interested in becoming a member may contact me at joel@schooldesigner.com Go to the website....

Lost In A Space  Wayfinding - A True Story Luke was a third-grade student who had just moved to a new town. Overall, the adjustment to a new neighborhood was going well. The school he was attending was filled with exceptional teachers and friendly fellow students. Still, one day something happened that visibly upset this young boy. Normally very good at hiding his emotions, today tears could be seen welling in Luke’s eyes. What happened? Had someone said something upsetting to him? Had he been injured? Fortunately, it was nothing so drastic, although it was no less traumatic for Luke. He had simply gotten lost in his new school! The 500-student K-5 school, although not massive in size, had a common building layout called the “finger plan.” It was designed with three identical “fingers” or classroom wings that housed two grade levels in each hallway. Each hallway looked identical to the others. So, as Luke went running down the hallway to show his parents his new classroom, he suddenly realized that he was in the wrong place! Most individuals walking by did not notice the bewilderment in his eyes or his quivering lip. However, his father and mother noticed. So did a sensitive and caring teacher. After some questions were gently asked to determine the cause of Luke’s look of hopelessness, he was successfully redirected down the next hallway and into his new class. Later, his father explained that Luke’s error was very normal. “There are three hallways that look exactly alike,” he said. “You just went down the wrong one.” Still, Luke’s father felt frustrated and disappointed that the facility had failed to properly guide his son and, most likely, many other students. “This is a common problem in schools, and it is easy to fix”, he thought to himself. Indeed, the problem was simply one of inadequate wayfinding elements: recognizable elements that help children,and adults, visually understand where they are within a school. Luke’s father, an architect experienced in school design, knew the problem was easy enough to fix. Solutions: One way to provide adequate wayfinding is to differentiate entries that lead into similar or identical wings. This can be done through the use of varying colors and/or materials. A great example is Adorable Themes. Distinct entries communicate to students, parents and other school visitors which entry to use to access which area of the school, like the office or gymnasium. An example of a nice entry that is visible so the building is entered at the right place is an element we call Marking the Way. Once inside, changing floor colors and patterns is an appropriate means of providing wayfinding. For instance, different hallways can have different colors and main intersections can have patterns uniquely designed. At Luke’s school, it would be appropriate for the floor of each academic wing to be a different color. An example of using floor patterns within a school can be seen at our element Tasty Palette. And, of course, signage is a critical wayfinding tool, both inside and out. It can be incorporated in creative ways to help create bold statements. For example, identifying a Library can be done as showcased in the unique library bench at Cozy Corner. Wayfinding requires some planning and is best accomplished when it’s part of the design process from the beginning. Even if it’s not, it can be successfully integrated into an existing school with proper thought and planning. The upside is that new students like Luke and students as young as kindergartners can always navigate from one space to another without getting lost in a space. Find more Designer Elements ...