School Architecture

The World Fairs held in Chicago in 5893 and in Paris in I900 (see EXHIBITION ARCHITECTURE) brought together a brilliant ex hibition of school plans which brought immediate results in the planning and designing of school buildings. At the same time the public began to show more liberality in their appropriations and to expect of the architect a higher grade of design and construction. The National Education Association in the United States ap pointed a committee of its foremost educators and architects to study the planning of school buildings. This committee's report, Schoolhouse Planning (1925), provided for a set of standards by which a school-house plan might be measured for right use of floor space, and contained chapters on the process of planning a school building, choice of plan, determining the schedule of rooms, illumination, etc. The National Fire Protection Association acting with the American Engineering Standards committee pub lished a report, Safety to Life in Schools (1927), giving rules for planning corridors, stairways, exits and general construction. Pre vious to 1900 the usual secondary school was easily housed in the old form of school building. There was comparatively little archi tectural development except in ornamentation. Within the first quarter of the 20th century, however, there developed a move ment in school administration brought about by the rising costs of school housing that made a marked impression on the school-house plan.

The idea that each pupil should have one central desk and ad ditional stations elsewhere has been shown to be based on a false conception of school needs. The superintendent of schools of Gary, Ind., adopting an educational idea that had been in use in Europe, evolved a programme of studies and time periods that made it financially possible for all school committees to give their pupils the benefits of a more enriched programme than was pos sible under the old plan of administration. The programme plans that every room, hall, shop, gymnasium and recreational centre shall be occupied and in use every school period.

Modern Tendencies.

The modern school-house has uni lateral lighting with a glass surface equal to 2o% of the floor space and its artificial lighting is laid out in accord with the code of the Illuminating Engineers' Association. Better construction means greater resistance to fire and few schools are now built without fire resisting corridors and stair wells. There are fire alarms and means for extinguishing fire. The building, also, is divided into sections by means of fire doors that automatically close when the electric latch holding them open is released by the current sounding the fire alarm. School toilet rooms are located on the various floors instead of being concentrated in the base ment, and they have the same type of fixtures as are found in the home. The heating and ventilating plant of educational buildings has been developed, and while there are differences of opinion as to the best type of ventilation, it is agreed that ventilation is necessary and the amount of fresh air to be supplied is prescribed by law in nearly all the States. Physical training is now often

required, and this has led to some school buildings being provided with gymnasiums, showers and swimming pools. There is a grow ing tendency to plan a building so that it may be altered to meet the demands of a changing school programme without undue cost. In general this means providing rooms that may be enlarged or reduced in size without destroying vital parts of the school-house structure. There is a small but insistent demand for rooms equipped so that the laboratory method of teaching may be em ployed. By this method the pupil may receive instruction based on his own free examination, inquiry and experiment. The modern school building in many communities is equipped for radio re ception and also for the talking moving picture. The principal's office may have a microphone transmitter connected to loud speaking telephones in each class room ; thus the principal is able to address the entire student body from his desk. In the audi torium the works of the master musicians providing the world's best music may be heard by the pupils by means of auditorium reproducers, actuated by record discs, microphones and amplifiers. Three secondary school buildings near Boston were so equipped in 1927-28,—the first installations of this kind for school build ings in the world. There is also a tendency for auditoriums to be reduced in size and to plan two or more of different sizes in the same building. Rooms for the school nurse, physicians and den tists are often added in administration suites to those for the principal, his clerks and assistants.

Examples.

The development of school architecture in Amer ica is nowhere more clearly shown than in New York city, where school buildings may be seen dating from the 17th century to the present year. Nearly all the secondary school buildings were de signed while C. B. J. Snyder held the office of architect of the department of education, 1891-1923. His De Witt Clinton high school, 191o, was cited by the United States Bureau of Education as the finest high school building in America.

A small building for 30o pupils, a junior high school in Long meadow, Mass., designed by Frank Irving Cooper, is of the simplest type. It has a combination assembly hall and gymnasium to accommodate all the pupils of the school; at one end is a stage shut off by folding doors, and when shut off the stage is used by classes in domestic arts. Small rooms are provided for packing away the seats of the assembly hall to make possible its daily use as a gymnasium. Showers and locker rooms are located in the basement. At the rear of the building is a room of large size used as a general shop, and on the second floor are rooms for domestic science. There is a room for the library with an open beam ceiling. There are the usual class-rooms, science rooms, administration suite and rooms for the school nurse and medical attendant. This building is of the U type and additional accommodations may be provided by an extension of the arms of the U.