WEST HARTFORD An architectural firm on Wednesday presented and sought reaction on three conceptual designs for the future Charter Oak International Academy at a public meeting held at the school.

The three options were developed after the Perkins Eastman firm held meetings to gather input from parents, teachers and faculty members, students and the community regarding the $44.6 million project.

The town plans to build the new 86,000-square-foot school, a much larger building, in an effort to draw more students and correct racial imbalances at the town's two magnet schools: Charter Oak, an International Baccalaureate school, and Smith STEM School; STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

The new school, to be built on the Charter Oak property, is expected to cost the town between $9 million and $16.65 million, after reimbursement from the state under diversity school legislation.

The first concept, nicknamed the "pathway scheme" by the architects, is an L-shaped, linear building situated along Flatbush Avenue. The design includes groups of classrooms along a corridor with the administrative offices and a "learning commons" near the main entrance. The gymnasium, cafeteria and auditorium were grouped together along one hallway.

The second possibility the "village scheme" features clusters for different groups within the school, which architect Mark McCarthy called "neighborhoods" or "communities." For instance, the pre-kindergarten classrooms and the Family Resource Center might be grouped together, and upper-grade classrooms might be separated from the lower grades.

The third design, called the "campfire scheme," is a circular school with a courtyard in the center.

"Something we heard over and over again about the school was the sense of community," McCarthy said. "The nice thing about a circle is you can always reference the center. It seemed like a nice metaphor for the school."

Each concept features a different configuration for parking and for bus and car drop-off areas, which the architects said were interchangeable among each building design. All three designs included a separate parking lot and drop-off area for pre-K students.

All three would be "largely two-story" buildings with portions that are one level. None would have a basement.

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Charter Oak School Architects Share Conceptual Designs

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Gregg Pasquarelli, co-founder and partner at SHoP Architects in New York, built this futuristic cityscape. Photo: Gregory Reid

Snohetta found a delicate equilibrium with this boomerang-shaped tower. Photo: Gregory Reid

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A view from above. Photo: Gregory Reid

Some of the custom, 3-D-printed bricks made for the job. Photo: Gregory Reid

The set includes translucent blocks as well as white ones. Photo: Gregory Reid

Curves. Photo: Gregory Reid

Drone's eye view of SHoP's cluster. Photo: Gregory Reid

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Mathews board plays host to architects.
Four firms present their ideas to Mathews board about construction of K-12 school complex.

By: Tribune Chronicle

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Mathews board plays host to architects. - Video

WEST HARTFORD Architects from Perkins Eastman will present conceptual plans for the new Charter Oak International Academy at a meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The firm came up with three abstract designs for the building and site layout after holding public meetings earlier this month.

The town plans to build the new 86,000-square-foot building in an effort to correct a racial imbalance at the town's two magnet schools: Charter Oak, an International Baccalaureate school, and Smith STEM School; STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. The $44.6 million project is expected to cost the town between $9 million and $16.65 million, after reimbursement from the state under diversity school legislation.

The current 1929 building will remain standing while the new building, which will hold nearly double the number of students the current school does, is constructed. The school currently holds about 300 students and has three classes per grade.

The district plans to have five pre-kindergarten classrooms and four classrooms each for kindergarten through fifth grade, with an anticipated 560 students attending by the 2020-2021 school year.

The town expects that a complete schematic design and cost estimate will be presented to the school board by the end of January. If all goes according to plan, the board will review and approve a final project design in June.

The new building is expected to open for the 2016-2017 school year.

The meeting will be held at Charter Oak, 425 Oakwood Ave. For more information, visit http://www.whps.org and click "Charter Oak Building News" under "Timely Topics."

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Architects To Present Charter Oak School Conceptual Plans

Museo JUMEX by David Chipperfield Architects
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Museo JUMEX by David Chipperfield Architects - Video

A year after Hurricane Sandy struck the United States, destroying houses and public infrastructure along the Eastern Seaboard, we reached out to several architects and posed two questions: What did you learn from Sandy? And how can architects prepare for the next storm? Their responses, edited and condensed, are below.--Eds

Unfortunately, architects tend to think they can profit from the damage. You wonder if theyre coming in to look at the problems or to get more work. I was appalled to hear that in the first week after Sandy, there were AIA ads for architects needed. It made my stomach turn--architects being ambulance chasers.

One of the obvious things architects can do is design their buildings that are within the flood zones to withstand the flood. Were doing a project for Duke University, which is in flood areas, on the coast. We placed the building almost 30 feet above sea level, and the whole building is designed to withstand winds of 140 mph. Buildings on the coast need a lot of structural resistance to the wind itself. And of course, water is a big issue. We placed the science building at Duke very high above sea level and are allowing the first-floor spaces to get destroyed--the first floor is programmed such that it wouldnt be a disaster if it got wiped out.--As told to Carey Dunne

From our studio research and our own work, weve discovered that one of the great lessons is to not rely on a single methodology for accommodating events like flooding. Our very first project at Olympia Fields was designed to accommodate torrential rains and collect water in a safe yet aesthetic manner. In other words, water collection is woven into the core of the design.

In the 25 years since, our practice advocates a multidisciplinary approach to shaping sites and engaging infrastructures. At our newly completed park at Hunters Point South, 88% of the shoreline is now soft, which means that it is designed to absorb a severe influx of water. The roof of the park pavilion is designed and constructed to resist hurricane-force winds. This park now represents a first line of defense for the surrounding community, which sat four feet underwater a year ago during Hurricane Sandy.

Infrastructure is often incorrectly perceived as hard and inflexible. These same considerations apply for landlocked sites as well. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, our rain gardens and 10,000-square-foot green roof are able to absorb a substantial amount of water without damaging the new structure or this historic site. In this way, we can rely on soft infrastructure that acts as a giant sponge to collect and gradually release large quantities of water over time, instead of all at once. It is our belief that it is now time to design alternate strategies that support resilient and pliable sites capable of absorbing cycles of extreme, unpredictable events.--As told to Suzanne LaBarre

It is important to look at small-scale solutions and legislative guidelines to help prevent loss of life and property. The grand and sometimes epic conceptual thinking is useful, but it should be balanced with immediacy. Simple flood protection can easily be implemented in building construction to ensure their contents are protected better. Beyond this, we must focus on landscape design that augments the natural needs of shorelines and basins where flooding may occur. Educating people who live in flood-prone zones should be more extensive than simply posting evacuation plans. In some places, there are credits given to those who design and inhabit shoreline conditions responsibly, measured by their inclusion of environmentally sensitive planning. --As told to Belinda Lanks

We need to change to sustainable systems NOW, not in the future. That means nature-based systems that can be implemented very quickly, unlike big hard engineering infrastructure projects, and for less money. Green roofs, green streets, rain gardens, pervious paving, linear parks, floating landscapes (which we are currently working on) are all tools that are immediately implementable and do not cost billions.

Architects need to learn about those soft systems, and landscape architects who do know about them need to develop a richer language and more varieties of nature-based systems. Architects pay little attention to sources of energy, and to where they are placed. Both are issues that have moved to the head of the list and cannot be treated as something the mechanical engineers alone will place in the buildings architects design.--As told to Sammy Medina

There's a lot to be done in terms of minding flood zones and taking those things much more seriously. In the past, we looked at hundred-year worst-case scenarios, and I think we're going to see a greater recurrence of this kind of thing as the climate changes.

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7 Architects On How To Design For Disaster

From the Political State blog on NorthJersey.com

New Jersey should make it easier for architects and engineers to volunteer their services after a disaster, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, said at a press conference Monday, ahead of the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy.

Hundreds of architects and engineers were available after the storm to conduct safety inspections of buildings, roads, bridges and other structures, Greenwald said, but they were prevented from volunteering because of liability concerns.

The potential for massive lawsuits keeps these critically needed volunteers on the sidelines, Greenwald said.

Legislation shielding volunteer architects and engineers from lawsuits was introduced in the Assembly January, but it has not been brought up in committee or introduced in the Senate. Greenwald said he wants to take action on the bill before the Legislature adjourns in January. The bill is modeled on similar good Samaritan laws in 26 other states, he said.

Jack Purvis, president of the American Institute of Architects New Jersey chapter, said more than 100 of his members were prepared to help after Sandy, but without protections against frivolous lawsuits, they were not able to quickly jump in.

With this bill, we will be able to assist towns and governmental agencies by quickly responding with boots on the ground to assess the viability and safety of all types of structures, Purvis said. This quick assessment is essential in the recovery from a disaster.

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N.J. Assembly Majority leader, marking Sandy anniversary, pushes for shield law for architects, engineers

Pedro Bandeira

Although the railway bridge, which dates back to 1877, has been defunct since 1991, it's still the most recognizablestructure in the historic city of 237,000.

Now the architects Pedro Bandeira and Pedro Nuno Ramalho want to scooch the famous Maria Pia Bridge just over three miles inland from its current location over the River Duoro.

Bandeira and Ramalho proposed the project when thePortuguese Council of Architectscalled for ideas earlier this year to help revitalize theAurifcia area in central Porto, which is largely abandoned due to a swell of inhabitants moving to the suburbs, Bandeira wrote in an email to Business Insider. He wanted to make the city desirable again.

According to the architects' plans, the absurdity of finding a wrought-iron bridge in the center of town would attract tourists. Bandeira told Business Insider that he wanted the project to "dignify thisforgotten monument and most important,increase the self-esteem of Portoinhabitants, like me."

It would have taken five months and less than 10 million euros ($13.8 million) to move the bridge,the British architecture magazineDezeen reported.

The relocation of the bridge didn't end up winning the revitalization competition, but Bandeira still thought the project did a good job of attracting attention to Porto.

"The major goal was to provoke debate and draw attention to the problems of the city," Bandeira wrote. "Toexecute a project like ours [even after losing the competition], we would have to talk to and convince everyone not just around the Aurifciablock, but the whole city and I think we are starting that processrightnow."

See how these Portuguese architects would have dismantled and reassembled a 1,158-foot wrought iron structure.

The bridge's latticed girder structure would make it easy to dismantle. Bandeira illustrates the deconstruction in four steps.

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Portuguese Architects Want To Move A 136-Year-Old Bridge To Revive Their City