Queen Creek Middle School Classroom Addition

Queen Creek Middle School needed a classroom addition on an existing campus as it expects 57% of growth over the next 5 years, with 6,161 during the 2015-16 school year to 7,685 in 2017-18. Building for this growth, Queen Creek gained the opportunity to reorientate the front of the campus, giving the school a new modern look and strengthening and communicating the identity and values of the Queen Creek’s Middle School. The classroom addition was designed to instill the values of the school, and the history of Arizona.
The five C’s of Arizona were used in varying architectural elements throughout the campus including in the guardrail panels of the stairways. There is a timeline spanning the West façade in the form of shade fins that was laser cut to express different events in history, scaled accurately to represent the proper gaps between the historical events. Architects were able to add a two story classroom building featuring four main breakout areas, two on each floor, and two main atrium spaces that have a seating area overlooking the schools internal courtyard. Towards the West of the new building there is a park, open to the public for use. The building's water drains into swales that both help to filter the water and feed the variety of plants they house. Using growth as a design impetus, Queen Creek Middle School reinvented its image and the values it imparts through the architecture of its classroom addition.