Offers 10 tips for renovating or building school washrooms that enhance user satisfaction while making them easier to maintain. Tips cover all aspects of school washroom design and highlights the following elements of effective washroom design development: user input; ease of maintenance; accessibility; and functionality. (GR)

Investigates conditions relating to the maximum useful-to-detrimental sound ratios present in classrooms and determining the optimum conditions for speech intelligibility. Reveals that speech intelligibility is more strongly influenced by ambient noise levels and that the optimal location for sound absorbing material is on a classroom's upper…

Explores locker-room design concepts that can be used to accommodate multipurpose athletic facilities and make the locker room more efficient and user friendly. Spaces are described that can be added to the typical locker room that will complement expanding facility functions. (GR)

Discusses the appropriate use of colors in school libraries. Highlights include how colors affect students' learning and behavior; influences on users' moods; users' ages; the use of colors to bring out the best physical attributes; and the use of color for floor coverings, window treatments, furnishings, and accessories. (LRW)

Provides guidelines that school administrators can use to increase student participation in cafeteria lunches. Redesigned features, employee appearances, and use of decorations are discussed, as are using prepared foods and disposable utensils to cut labor time, and marketing the cafeteria to parents to raise their perceptions. (GR)

Universal design is made up of four elements: accessibility, adaptability, aesthetics, and affordability. This article addresses the concept of universal design problem solving through experiential learning for an interior design studio course in postsecondary education. Students' experiences with clients over age 55 promoted an understanding of…

Uniform illumination levels in the classroom and focused brightness on the "teaching wall" made good sense for students in Henry Ford's era. If you were training to take your place on the assembly line, you needed to focus on the work at hand and ahead to your supervisor, but the future no longer belongs to students who look only straight ahead.…

Classrooms often get the short shrift when it comes to designing a space that allows for optimum hearing conditions for students and speaking conditions for teachers. Over the last few years, increasing concern from state regulators and facility designers has focused greater attention on improving acoustics. The main acoustical issues to consider…

The project described in this article addresses the therapeutic use of physical space in an outpatient counseling facility. It was theorized that an improved facility environment could be used as a practice tool when working with a vulnerable population. The authors undertook the project with limited time and finances. The process of the change…

Most school librarians do not think of copyright compliance and facilities planning in the same breath. Yet the design of space--physical and virtual--can discourage or promote compliance, or even help police it. Placement of and access to equipment, traffic patterns, signage, and student workspace all may influence copyright-compliance behavior…

Seven experts describe the elements that make college housing a success. (Author)

Architects and designers need to discover ways to work with management-users in determining the design and character of a working office. (Author/MLF)

The last of seven articles that address the alternatives availablee to institutions of higher education in meeting the space needs of new programs and new attitudes, as well as a wider constituency, without resorting to new building. A review of general approaches to restructure campus housing is supplemented by examples selected from 10 indepth…

Because of a high vacancy rate and widespread vandalism in its highrise dormitories, the University of Massachusetts commissioned an environmental consultant to assess the problem. A two-year study showed that occupancy increased and vandalism decreased in an experimental dormitory where students were allowed greater freedom to arrange their own…

Written for those who become involved in a library building project, this manual deals with the basics--from appraisal or needs assessment through planning, design, construction, and occupation. It is equally concerned whether the project involves remodeling, expansion, or a new structure and should be useful regardless of the size or nature of…