RMKM Architecture » Education

Monte del Sol Charter School

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:36:37 +0000

Monte del Sol Charter School is a diverse, independent public school serving grades 6-12 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It prides itself on its small enrollment and strong relationships with each student, as well as an extensive arts education, community involvement, technology/sustainability practices and education, and a global perspective. The school currently operates out of a single classroom building that no longer meets all of their needs. RMKM’s campus master plan attempts to meet them; the first being a gymnasium and performing arts building. This building also includes an outdoor amphitheater so that the black-box stage can be used as both an indoor and outdoor stage. The roof is shaped so that it can collect rainwater in two large cisterns, and the south façade is faceted to improve acoustics in the gymnasium. Several meeting rooms for the school’s mentorship program and four science labs will be added in a separate wing.

Renovations to the existing building include relocating the administrative offices to the school’s main entrance and moving wellness offices in their place, turning the existing science labs into visual art classrooms, and adding a mezzanine level to the existing cafeteria/gathering space that will house a media center. A new concourse will connect the existing building to the new building, and lastly, a large, terraced garden area will be added where portables currently sit. Monte del Sol brings gardening into almost all areas of academic curriculum and after-school programs. This new garden area will allow them to expand this program and allow for an outdoor classroom immersed within the garden.

APS Adobe Acres Elementary

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:34:20 +0000

This project is a kindergarten addition to the Adobe Acres Elementary School’s campus in Albuquerque. Currently, all of the kindergarten classes are held in portable structures. The addition will allow for the elimination of those portables. RMKM’s design includes seven new kindergarten classrooms and one art & music classroom situated in a Vee-shape. The orientation establishes a secure, quad-like space in the center of campus, while also creating a street façade along Camino Del Valle SW. Circulation happens under deep overhangs along the interior of each wing which eliminates the need for interior corridors. The roof overhangs, along with the brick along the outer walls of each wing, help to tie in with the design of the existing campus buildings. Ample amounts of glazing on the interior sides of the wings give each classroom daylighting and views to the playground throughout the school day.

The roof overhangs also delineate the meeting place of the two wings, and act as both the main entrance to the building and an outdoor gathering space. The art and music room is designed to be a celebrated space and so it deviates from the rest of the building with its large volume space, canted outer wall, and standing seam metal cladding. An all glazed northeast façade opens out onto a covered outdoor stage and an amphitheater sunken into the site.

The Bosque School Schoolhouse Building

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:02:31 +0000

RMKM designed a new high school and head-of-school administration building for Albuquerque’s Bosque School with goals of the building “fitting in” with its context, providing a warm and inviting first impression, and projecting a bold, dignified symbol of educational excellence. A pristine Rio Grande preserve and existing masonry buildings establish the project’s context. The Schoolhouse Building responds with locally-produced burnished concrete masonry units, glu-lam wood columns and beams, a palate of recycled materials that reflects its natural setting, and lighting strategies that harness the abundance of Southwestern light.

The plan organizes spaces around a linear high-bay, sloped roof space that arranges special program areas and faculty office pods in an ‘interactive zone.’ A continuous clerestory monitor caps this high-bay, providing a luminous common reference throughout the building. Daylight floods classrooms located on the building’s perimeter, from which students spill into the schoolhouse interior to connect with faculty in their offices, the technology reading room, and computer pods. With emphasis on a broad dialogue, the Bosque School welcomes a variety of visitors – including parents, prospective students, college admissions representatives, and potential donors in its “reception/ living room.” A central fireplace serving both the “living room” and a group study area emits a warm first impression of Bosque School and reinforces the spirit of community – a key component of the school’s mission.

Recipient of the 2009 AIA Albuquerque – Merit Award.

Chelwood Elementary School

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:25:23 +0000

Located in Albuquerque’s NE Heights, the Chelwood Elementary School Campus was conceived four decades ago as a centralized scheme of prefabricated classroom buildings. Over the years the campus has grown to include several independent additions.

In collaboration with the faculty, students, community and administration, desirable attributes were identified for preservation and a new campus master plan was developed. The Master Plan replaces the decaying prefabricated classrooms with a new permanent building, stabilizes the central campus drainage and erosion problems with a new upper plaza and amphitheater, provides connectivity amongst the various facilities and the varied finished floor elevations, improves and expands vehicular systems, provides a clear new pedestrian interface, and offers a dignified new image to the community – all while preserving two (2) mature Mulberry trees at the core.

The new 26,000 SF two-story building acknowledges the characteristics of the existing campus and acts as a unifying element forming a cohesive and iconic presence for the Chelwood ES neighborhood. The facility models environmental responsibility and energy efficiency, while the campus design maintains and improves upon the

Recipient of the 2009 AIA Albuquerque – UNM School of Architecture – Student-Faculty Shadow Jury Award.

Matheson Park Elementary

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 04:10:14 +0000

Conceived as non-typically “introspective,” Matheson Park Elementary provides the campus with its first permanent classrooms and is sensitive to both the campus and the surrounding neighborhood with an outwardly reserved neo-modern aesthetic. As a whole, the ultimate composition strives to encourage, enhance and support: educator retention, inspiration, student thought, clear way finding, memorable destinations, multi-function, flexibility, community involvement, team teaching, user safety and security, technology integration, meaningful educational interaction and intellectual development.

UNM Taos – Art Center Expansion

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 05:38:14 +0000

UNM Taos – Phase II consists of art studios and classrooms for drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, ceramics and jewelry making. The instructional facility organizes classroom studios around an interior “courtyard-like” commons designed as a place for student and faculty interaction, informal meetings or lectures, and as a gallery for the display of student artwork. Stepped, mulitlevel building massing responds to the southwest regional architectural context and the existing architecture of the campus.

Kit Carson Elementary School Kindergarten and Cafetorium

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 05:44:52 +0000

This new and renovated facility for the Kit Carson Elementary School consists of a Kindergarten Addition as well as a new “Cafetorium” which includes a state-of-the-art full service kitchen. The Kindergarten portion of the project replaces five portable classrooms with four new and two renovated kindergarten classrooms, as well as a shared common space and a protected outdoor play area, essentially creating a dedicated “Kindergarten Wing” at the southwest corner of the elementary school. The intent of the project was not only to provide a suitable facility for the full-day kindergarten program, but also to provide a new and welcoming face for the existing buildling.

UNM Gallup – Zollinger Library

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2001 05:39:19 +0000

The UNM Gallup Learning Resource Center provides an important “edge” to the campus and accommodates the growing needs of UNM’s Gallup branch campus. The project includes a new 15,000 SF replacement library building and the renovation of the former library and miscellaneous existing space for Student and Support Services departments and a teaching auditorium. The library’s dynamic plan and book stack arrangement is organized along a subtle radial geometry responding to the physical restraints of the site, dramatic views of the surrounding landscape, and circulation desk optimal control.