Elementary School Utilizes Prototype Design

Elementary School Utilizes Prototype Design

WINTER PARK, Fla. — Butterflies raised and released by students soared with the voices of the school’s chorus as the new Lakemont Elementary School replacement campus was dedicated with an open house for families and former students.

Built at the school’s existing site, the $15.3 million project designed by C.T. Hsu + Associates utilized the firm’s two-story elementary school prototype to build the 89,826-square-foot facility for 758 students.

The urban prototype design features three interlocking rectilinear bars grouped around a single secure courtyard, a single-story building for core spaces and two two-story classroom wings. The prototype design brings daylighting into all the classrooms and hallways, designers say.

There are shared activity spaces on both floors of the classroom wings to promote team teaching and encourage interaction between students from different classes. A two-story lobby links the classroom wings with core building spaces.

“On the first day of school, the children were just mesmerized when they walked in,” says Susan Stephens, Lakemont principal.
For the dedication, past students were invited to make ceramic wall tiles that will be placed on the new building to link the school’s history with its new beginning, school officials say.