Seeking to develop a cohesive, safe, and campus-like setting for their community’s schools, the McDonald Local School District contracted with ms consultants to provide master site planning and design services for a new 55,000-square-foot school. This facility, named Roosevelt Elementary, is located adjacent to the existing McDonald High School and houses students in grades K-6.
The building is comprised of two wings linked together by the main lobby and media center. One wing houses the academic teaching spaces while the other houses the shared non-academic spaces. The media center was designed as a double-story space in the shape of an octagon, serving as the focal point for the building form and the site design.
The school features 23 classrooms stacked on two floors, including dedicated art and music rooms, and a special education suite. The shared non-academic spaces within the building include a regulation middle school gymnasium, dining room, computer lab, and media center. With the use of operable acoustic partitions, the dining room can be divided into two spaces that can be used simultaneously.
The building was designed to deliver natural light in all teaching spaces, the gymnasium, the dining room and the media center. The building can also be secured for after-hour use of the gymnasium, media center and dining room by closing only one vertical gate.
Using the existing site grade change and the new building to separate vehicular and pedestrian traffic, the architects sited the structure to protect the outdoor play areas and practice fields from off-campus interference. Traffic control measures also separate buses and cars with different drives and building entrances for each. The entrances share a main lobby space, which is within view of the administrative suite and is easily supervised.
Complementing the architectural planning and design work, the project team also supplied complete electrical engineering and site design for this building, and managed subconsultants for structural engineering and HVAC design.
The project was funded by the OSFC (Ohio Schools Facilities Commission) and the McDonald Local School District.