Library Buildings around the World

with natural light and features a glass encased weight room on the second floor overlooking the basketball courts a cupola and
exposed trusses in the dining room reminiscent of a pavilion (SHW Group)
Career and Technical Education Center, Frisco, TX – USA 2008
125.000 sqf.
In one of the fastest growing school districts in Texas, the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center is the visionary product of
two bond elections and a 10-year effort by the Frisco school district, community members, business professionals and students. The
vision for the center is to attract and accommodate the district’s brightest students, and allow them to explore courses consistent
with their chosen career field or field of interest; whether it’s technology, agriculture, culinary arts, veterinary medicine, criminal
justice, business or other specialized fields. Envisioned as a state-of-the-art facility that prepares students for college and the 21stcentury
workforce in a competitive global economy, the center combines academics with real-world spaces and hands-on experience.
The design team’s challenge was to create a facility that supports curriculums, activities and learning spaces that are vastly disparate
in nature, yet achieves unity and encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary study. The facility’s design also needed to
compliment the traditional-style architectural fabric of Frisco while presenting a future-minded appearance for the unique
environment. With mature trees and 27 feet of fall across the terrain, the building site itself presented challenges. Stepping down in
several places to conform to the site’s natural descent and oriented to be visually prominent, the building presents a sleek exterior of
transparency and clean lines with a dramatic primary entry façade of metal panels and extensive glazing, With a palette of metal,
glass and terrazzo made from recycled glass and porcelain, the interior features a two-story entry atrium with a back-lit glass
elevator at its heart. A large panel system of flat screens instantly provides entrants with pertinent information and direction while
color-coded fins and backlights are also used for wayfinding and allow each suite its own identity. Other unique spaces include: a
mock courtroom, forensics center, nursing facility, full-sized television studio, a kennel for small animals and a corral for large
animals, full-service credit union, Apple and PC computer testing centers, a working greenhouse and a fully operational and
student-run restaurant. Outdoor features include a dining area and jogging trail, as well as the native plants surrounding this
innovative facility now garnering nationwide attention for its progressive model. (SHW Group)
Andy Dekaney High School, Spring, TX – USA 2007
486.000 sqf.
Awards:
The Caudill Award, 2008; Texas Association of School Administrators/Texas Association of School Boards
The new award-winning Andy Dekaney High School needed to provide a learning environment not typical of most large schools, in
which size impacts learning and affects students' sense of community and belonging. A design was envisioned that would break the
large school down into smaller learning academies and grade-level housing. As a result of the SHW visioning process with the
designers, school committee members came up with general concept words such as "attention-getting" and "natural looking" rather
than "institutional" and "low maintenance." In addition to the design concept of a small academic environment within a large school
was the client's desire to preserve the balance of the school's needs for decreased maintenance and lower operating costs with its
strong value of aesthetic features. The project design team met this request through a thoughtful design and the careful selection of
high-value materials. Inspired by the natural setting of the site, and taking into consideration the committee members' general
concept words, the team then developed the design concept of a mountain lodge theme. Lodge theme features include an entrance
sign made of cedar and planks, local hand-molded bricks harkening back to another era, and galvanized stairs and handrails that
wear and age richly while connecting each generation of students to the next. Connected by a "main street corridor," the academic
portion of the school is divided into four houses with distinctive features such as wainscoting and varying wood types and door
surrounds to foster each student group's own identity. Other spaces along the corridor include a large group instruction area,
auditorium, coffee shop, music, choir and arts halls, a black-box theater with traditional marquee, administration spaces, two
practice gymnasiums, a practice pool, library and cafeteria. (SHW Group)
Carl Wunsche Sr. High School (Library), Spring, TX – USA 2006
273.178 sqf.
Awards:
2007 Caudill Award Winner, TASA TASB Exhibition of School Architecture
2007 MacConnell Award Winner, Council of Education Facility Planners International
2008 Education Design Showcase Grand Prize Winner, School Planning & Management
Located on approximately 22 acres dotted with mature oak trees, the Carl Wunsche Sr. High School was required to accommodate
core curriculum classes and specialized areas of study that prepared students for business industries. With existing buildings on the
site for the Wunsche School and the previously existing Saylers Elementary School, the project also required a major renovation and
addition to the campus, as well as some demolition. The new facility was envisioned as interactive, exciting and with a special focus
on the career academic studies. A design that provides connectivity and openness was the key challenge. Though the various career
academic studies include training and curriculum for such diverse fields as criminal investigation, veterinary medicine, dental
technology, and news reporting and producing, an additional challenge was to make their spaces connected and interactive.
Fostering a sense of community among the students was also a major consideration. The facility is designed around three academic
pods with technologically advanced classes and learning spaces that resemble dentist offices, crime labs, newsroom studios and other
professional areas, which are all glass-encased so that other students can observe what is happening inside, creating openness and
fostering mutual pride and respect of students’ academic activities. The pods are supported by adjacent overlooking core curriculum
spaces that connect and interact with other activity areas, including a media center, large group instruction areas, dining, museum,
coffee shop, bank, fitness center, administration and other ancillary spaces all organized along an interactive and elevated glass
corridor known as the Learning Street. Student response to this engaging, exciting and attractive learning environment has been so
overwhelming that the facility always has a waiting list. (SHW Group)
Ducanville High School (Library), Ducanville, TX – USA 2005
884.479 sqf.
The new Duncanville High School was envisioned as a facility that would join the district's student population in a collegiate campus
atmosphere while bringing the ninth through twelfth grades into a single high-school facility. The school was designed to offer a
broad range of electives and superior athletic facilities, and to attract high-caliber educators through its progressive technologies,
extremely functional learning spaces and an increased level of community involvement. The challenge was the project's scope, which
consisted of six bid packages and 14 phases of construction to connect the existing 11 separate buildings and bring the campus under
one roof. Additionally, 14 phases were completed while classes were still in session - an extraordinary feat that was successfully
achieved through careful planning from the project's conception. The fifty-year-old school was rebuilt by replacing the materials
back to the original foundation, structure and exterior wall, as well as all systems, including the roof, HVAC and site utilities,
resulting in a new 50-year life span for the building. With abundant natural light throughout, the new school houses a ninth-grade
community and an upper-grades community divided in four neighborhoods. Both communities are separated by a central elective
and academic core called the Central Academic District, and along the school's main corridor are situated state-of-the-art elective
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