Built 3 times between 2009 & 2012, this 196,000 SF middle school prototype has been designed with a compact footprint and can be flexibly oriented depending on varying site conditions. It has also been designed with sustainability in mind. All classrooms are located around the building’s perimeter and large windows are placed to take advantage of natural day lighting. South facing glass is shaded and light shelves direct sun’s rays deep into classroom spaces. Energy efficient electrical and mechanical systems reduce energy costs. The exterior is a combination of local North Carolina brick and light weight steel panels which are made from 27% recycled content. Using the light weight metal panels above roofs and high on the buildings elevations reduces the chance for roof membrane damage during construction and has the added benefit of reducing the quantity of structural steel required to support the building’s skin, reducing use of natural resources and saving tax payer dollars.

Alston Ridge Middle School is the first build of a revised middle school prototype to be constructed in Cary, NC. This design features small learning communities centered around flexible collaborative space.  Included in the program is a dedicated theater for 525 students.  Good sight lines are achieved with a sloping floor and angled seating and acoustics are enhanced with sloped ceiling clouds and angled walls in addition to carefully placed acoustical panels.  The theater will be an important piece of the arts education program at Alston Ridge MS.  The 210,000SF school is designed for 1,311 students (traditional calendar) with 82 teaching spaces and includes a full-sized gym as well as a 2^nd auxiliary gym.  Security features include clear circulation pathways with excellent visibility, vice-principal’s offices distributed on each floor level, and a main entry vestibule with bullet resistant glass, passing through the administrative area.  The classroom wing is oriented to face North & South to take advantage of the most consistent natural light and reduce energy usage.  The footprint is compact for a school of this size which will allow WCPSS to be able to fit the prototype on smaller sites in a county that is land starved due to its rapid growth.

This is a project completed in 2001, but I wanted to show it here because of THIS great link for a 360-degree panorama of the finished project.

The renovation of the historic 1924 Whitley Auditorium at Elon University provides a much-used recital space for the Music Department as well as a multi-purpose space that is used for lectures, classes, as well as weekly church services.  The auditorium was renovated, new classical columns and scrolled brackets to support the balconies were added to cover existing steel columns, acoustical improvements were initiated, new handicapped accessible restroom facilities were carefully fit below the existing stairways, the lobby was extended and improved for better traffic flow and a more welcoming atmosphere, and refurbished vintage auditorium seating was installed.  A new state of the art HVAC system was designed to provide quiet temperature and humidity control for concert patrons and to maintain the tuning of the new Casavant Frères pipe organ.

Brad Farlow, Architect-of-Record (Eason & Farlow Design, PA)