New Texas School Has Ties to Architectural Firm Leader

RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — Birdville Independent School District’s new Jack C. Binion Elementary School opened in time for the 2008-09 school year.

The $11 million, 88,000-square-foot campus was designed with flexibility to accommodate different learning spaces and future growth.

“Open, studio-like areas serve every grade level,” says Mark VanderVoort, principal in charge of the project for HKS Inc. “These spaces are intended for groups of different sizes. For example, two classes can watch a video or half of one class can work on a project with half of another class.”

The previous facility featured 21 portable classrooms and the playground sat adjacent to a high-traffic area. The new school provides a safer environment, with buildings acting as a buffer between a frontage street and the playground, officials say.

HKS worked during the planning process to link the new campus to its history. The new building is styled in a modern interpretation of forms that were popular during the 1950s, according to the firm.

“The design has horizontal and cantilevering roof forms with an emphasis on horizontal lines,” VanderVoort says. “We’re incorporating similar brick colors and there is also a commemorative space reserved in one of the corridors as a heritage hall for posterity.”

The school also has personal ties with one of the firm’s top executives.

“Ralph Hawkins, HKS’s chairman and CEO, is an alumnus of the elementary school,” VanderVoort says. “When he attended in the early 1950s, Jack C. Binion was the principal of the school.”

Ralph Hawkins, HKS chairman and CEO, is an alumnus of Jack C. Binion Elementary School.