With taxpayers' considerable investment in schools, it is critical for school districts to preserve their community's assets with new construction or renovation and effective facility maintenance programs. "High-performance" school buildings are designed to link the physical environment to positive student achievement while providing such benefits…

Daylighting a space is both an art and a science. The impact of daylight can make a building's design come to life. Daylighting can be carried out skillfully, or it can be too casually considered or totally misunderstood. Bad daylighting is devastating to a space and costly to fix. Today, in this era of sustainable design, daylighting is given…

Earthquakes occur across the globe, and their efforts can be felt by people regardless of location. However, a moderate earthquake in Pakistan or Turkey may cause much greater damage than a stronger earthquake in Tokyo. It is imperative to help students understand why this disparity exists--often due to both natural and human influences. Students…

The Texas statewide assessment of academic skills in 1997 indicated that >55 % of the student population failed to master the mathematics objectives set by the test criteria and 42 % of the mathematics teachers at the secondary level in the East Texas region were categorized as underqualified to teach mathematics at that level. The issue of…

The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) has a mission to build district and school capacity to implement intensive intervention that will improve reading, mathematics, and behavioral outcomes for students with disabilities in Grades K-12 who have severe and persistent learning and/or behavioral problems. The purpose of this document…

This report surveys various ways that physical flexibility (immediate and long term) may be incorporated into the design and construction of college buildings. Because flexibility should encompass every subsystem of construction within a building, this publication draws attention to the wide range of elements that must be considered within modular…

The University of Santa Clara has the world's largest permanent air-supported structure; a radar dome turns into a gymnasium in the Payette, Idaho, school district. (Author/MLF)

BSIC has selected data for inclusion, and a method of presentation that-- (1) provides preliminary data, in comparable form, about all relevant systems building products, (2) surveys within the limits imposed, the problems of compatibility between subsystem components and to identify components which are compatible with one another, (3) identifies…

School districts sometimes need to add relatively small increments of high quality educational space to their existing physical facilities. For some of these situations, the portable or relocatable classroom is the answer; in other cases, the district needs different or more permanent space--quickly. This document comprises six charts that present…

One of the ten buildings chosen to receive 1976 AIA honor awards, the arts center houses the departments of sculpture, painting, graphics, advertising art, photography, and industrial design. (Author/MLF)

The soon-to-be-completed North Campus of the Community College of Denver demonstrates a conviction on the part of the state and the design team that the use of solar energy is economically and technologically and alternative to the continued consumption of fossil fuel. (Author/MLF)

This book outlines information needed to embark on a library building project, serving as an overview of the entire process, not merely focusing on the librarian's traditional role. The book begins by discussing ways librarians can prepare themselves and their staff to function effectively in the midst of a building project. Chapter 2 focuses on…

This document describes a new $168 million 14-story building for Baruch College of the City University of New York located near Gramercy Park in Manhattan and containing 40 percent of Baruch's total campus area in one building envelope. The report outlines the design challenges and resolutions and provides numerous design drawings, floor plans,…

The world's longest skylighted galleria (main street for student residents at the University of Alberta) is the lifeline of a 950-foot long complex of apartments and shops sponsored by the student government and architecturally designed to fit over an existing street. (Author/MF)

The Science building at the University of California at Santa Cruz, was originally designed as an engineering educational facility, but when completed emerged as a combination of School of Applied Sciences and administration. (Author/MF)