William Jones

This project involved the design and construction of a high density school building which is approximately 240,000 sf and serving 1,200 selective-enrollment and community students in grades 9 through 12. The proposed site was approximately 44,085 sf located at the northwest intersection of South State and West Polk Streets, adjacent to the existing Jones College Preparatory High School. The new building was intended as a replacement facility for the existing high school, and included classrooms, computer and science laboratories, art and music studios, administrative and support services, a library and a full-service dining facility to accommodate the intended student population. The project also included athletic facilities and fine and performing arts amenities. In addition, the facility required underground parking and rooftop gardens.

HORIZONTAL VARIATION APPROACH
In order to resolve of the complex relationships between the different programmatic areas in the project, STL explored two different architectural approaches. The scheme displayed on this page represents a horizontal organizational approach. This strategy is the direct result of placing all the educational portion of the program (classrooms, laboratories, support) in the upper levels far from the noise generated by State Street traffic. The lower levels accommodate the auditorium, the pool and the gym. The location of these large public elements closer to the street facilitates secure and direct access to the building, allowing the surrounding community to use these facilities after-hours or on weekends.

VERTICAL VARIATION APPROACH
This scheme explored the result of grouping the educational areas and the long-span spaces vertically. On the one hand the vertical grouping of the auditorium, the pool and the gym, allowed for these elements to share a common structural strategy which resulted in a simple, cost effective solution. On the other hand the vertical distribution of all the academic portions of the program produced a slender and tall expression of the program, which located on the southern portion of the plan provided the composition with impacting visuals all along State Street.