One of a Kind
With extensive use of wood casework and a vaulted ceiling framing the media center’s view of the Minneapolis city skyline, it is hard to ignore the high degree of attention paid to architecture at the grades K-8 Nellie Stone Johnson Community School. And administrators at Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) expect no less; they build their schools to be used for 75 years and expect to get more than 100 years of use from them.
At $20 million, the Nellie Stone Johnson Community School is the most expensive of four K-8 schools built on Minneapolis’s northern side. Instead of providing students with a traditional elementary that might serve kids to grades five or six, MPS opted to combine an elementary and a junior high school into one facility. MPS is responsible for a total of 22 K-8 schools out of 85 schools district-wide that serve approximately 47,000 students.
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PROJECT DATA Type: Grades K-8 |
Sometimes MPS opted to convert existing schools to include more grades, or as in the case of this quartet of K-8 community schools, the district built new. The community school, located just a few miles from downtown Minneapolis in the Hawthorne area, has a media center that is described by Architect Edward Kodet, FAIA, as one of the nicest media centers in Minneapolis.
The shift away from having kids attend an elementary school and then a different junior high school was spurred by concerned parents who wanted children to have continuity throughout their educational experience before entering high school.
"Parents like to have kids around the same teachers and building," said Clyde Kane, assistant director of facilities at MPS.
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| The computer lab contains Macintosh iMac computers. It is sited right off the main lobby corridor. Photos: Edward Kodet, FAIA |
Dan Kristal, owner of Arkay Construction, the project’s general contractor, noted that combining the grades into one facility makes economic sense. "Cost-wise, the school is very efficient," he said. His company’s business is roughly 40 percent school construction and they have previously worked with the district.
Bring in the Brick
The central lobby is the school’s main focus. By bringing inside the dark brick from the building’s exterior, a more seamless transition was formed. The continuity of the exterior brick visually leads visitors to the information desk, the media center, and classrooms, with minimal use of signage.
"We like to use pattern in the brick and we used a lot of woodwork. A lot of schools don’t use [wood] because it can get dinged-up. But we found it to be just the opposite."
Kodet explained how his firm, Kodet Architectural Group, went even further in this case. In reference to the dramatic media center, he pointed out that there is "tons of casework."
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| Assistant Director of Facilities Clyde Kane considers the media center, or library, to be the "heart of the school." Its vaulted ceiling reaches nearly two stories and extensive casework lines its shelves and walls. Photos: Edward Kodet, FAIA |
Three types of masonry comprise the school’s walls: brick; burnished CMU, ground smooth in a factory and then sealed; and block CMU. Some of the block CMU is acoustical, explained Kristal. The acoustical block, CMU with holes to absorb sound, is used in the multipurpose room and gymnasium. Classrooms are sheetrock. The exterior is brick with metal siding on the roof.
Above the brick-lined central lobby are two bridges. One is for public use and the other leads to the mechanical penthouse, where primarily HVAC equipment is housed.
Arkay Construction handled the kitchen installation. There are two cafeterias to accommodate the necessary student body groupings. The cafeterias are next to each other, but separate, explained Kristal. Both are served by one kitchen.
Grade Separation
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| With the extensive use of wood casework and a nearly two-story, vaulted ceiling framing the media center’s view of the Minneapolis city skyline, it is hard to ignore the high degree of attention paid to architecture at the grades K-8 Nellie Stone Johnson Community School. And administrators at Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) expect no less; they build their schools to be used for 75 years and expect to get more than 100 years of use from them. Photos: Edward Kodet, FAIA |
The Nellie Stone Johnson Community School has two separate towers to demarcate grades K-5 and grades 6-8 students. The three floors on the western side of the building are where all the classrooms are located.
The first floor is predominantly K-2, the second level houses grades 3-5, and the third houses grades 6-8. The K-5 classrooms are in one three-story tower and the grades 6-8 classrooms are in the other tower. The school was designed to keep the students in age-appropriate groups with minimal contact between the two throughout the day.
On the eastern face of the building sits the administrative offices, cafeteria, multipurpose room, and the nearly two-story media center.
The media center’s vaulted ceilings were used to increase the ceiling volume. "Whenever we have large space, we want to open it up and give it some airiness so the students are not restricted," said director Kane. The media center also feels airy because it is surrounded on three sides by windows that capture natural light and offer views of the school’s playing fields and downtown Minneapolis.
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| Many classrooms have additional windows for daylighting, as this school’s design exceeded the state requirements for natural light, but these also face onto the commons. There are two commons areas in the three-story classroom portion. "Teachers and students can work in smaller groups in the commons," said Edward Kodet. "The commons area is about a quarter to a third of the classroom size." Photos: Edward Kodet, FAIA |
Although less than 30 blocks from downtown, the Hawthorne area is economically depressed and has seen its share of violence, and in that vein, security is a priority for every child.
Kane explained that the administration is the first element in the line of defense since they monitor who goes in and out, and work to ensure safety. Sited adjacent to the main lobby entrance, administrators monitor all activity coming into the facility-and after the kids are in school, it is "locked down."
Once students are in class the only way in is the main lobby entrance via two doublewide doors. All other auxiliary entries provide egress only.
The school is in session year-round with the main entrance often open, and not only to the student body and the staff, but to the community who uses the multipurpose room and its stage, the media center filled with books and iMac computers, the cafeteria, and gymnasium while the classroom towers are closed.
Minneapolis Public School officials pride themselves on giving students, staff, and the community much more than a basic bare-bones facility in which to learn, educate, and congregate.
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PRODUCT DATA Construction Materials Furniture Carpet and Flooring Lighting Security/Fire Safety Washroom Equipment/ Supplies Physical Education Equipment Office Equipment & Systems HVAC/Controls Miscellaneous |
"We’ve done a lot of schools [16 new ones since 1990] and typically school districts have a tendency to be rather spartan in their designs, but we try to give them some architecture and identity," said Kane. He made sure to mention how the district works to make them on par with suburban schools.
With all the known benefits of natural light improving student performance there is hardly a new school built anywhere that will not work to emphasize it. However, MPS requested that the design by Kodet Architectural Group feature more windows than what was required under state guidelines. Functions that make use of the natural lighting and view are sited on the southern and eastern face.
"We build buildings to be used for 75 years," said Kane, matter-of-factly, who has 21 years with MPS. "And expect to get over 100 years of use out of it."
An Inspiration
The Nellie Stone Johnson Community School was named in honor of Nellie Stone Johnson (1905-2002), a Minnesota-born activist and business-woman who secured endorsement of the Minnesota Fair Employment Practices Act, which in 1944 outlawed job discrimination in Minneapolis. The following year she became the first African-American elected to a citywide office: The Minneapolis Library Board. She remained committed to education throughout her life as evinced by serving on the Minnesota State University Board for eight years and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities board of trustees.
Stone Johnson’s part in shaping civil rights in the Twin Cities metro area had now been recognized by Minneapolis Public Schools.
The school’s dedication ceremony took place on November 29, 2001, ending with a presentation of a $7,500 check from the General Mills Foundation to the Nellie Stone Johnson Scholarship, which provides financial assistance to racial minority union members and their families.
The facilities director, architect, and general contractor all discovered that when people in a neighborhood have a connection to the school and feel welcome, it improves the community through a sense of pride and belonging.