SCHRADERGROUP Earns an Outstanding Project Award for the Learning by Design 2017 Fall Awards of Excellence Issue

SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is excited to announce that the Upper Merion Area School District School, Gulph Elementary School, was chosen for an Outstanding Project Award in the Fall Awards of Excellence issue of Learning by Design.

SG developed designs for two new elementary schools in the Upper Merion Area School District. The new schools will replace the existing Caley Elementary School and Gulph Elementary School facilities, which were originally constructed in the 1960’s and no longer accommodate the District’s enrollment or educational program.

The proposed school programs encompass 83,279 SF and 95,538 SF respectively, and, in the interest of parity between the two buildings and their respective student populations, each will include a prototypical wing that houses the kindergarten learning node, dining area, gym, stage, music department, support spaces, and administration offices. Due to the complex site boundary and grade conditions present at the Gulph Road location, site specific design responses were developed for the classroom wings.

Classrooms wings are structured as groupings of grade appropriate classrooms with learning support, faculty spaces and team work areas.  Each set of grade clusters is then oriented around the two-story open Learning Resource and STEAM Center. The classroom clusters connect to the Learning Resource Center through a grand Learning Stair which doubles as a mini auditorium space for the building.

Following an extensive Master Planning process lead by SG, the design team developed a series of programming and design workshops that included members from the school community, the community at large and current students.

The issue of Learning by Design (linked here) is available October 1, 2017 and check out the article on Gulph Elementary School (linked here) that received the Outstanding Project Award.