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ArchDC Spring 2018.qxp_Fall 2017 2/22/18 9:12 AM Page 46

Watkins as seen from the playing field.
Photo © Joseph Romeo Courtesy Perkins Eastman Watkins Elementary School lobby. Photo © Joseph Romeo Courtesy Perkins Eastman

The renovation of the long academic wing posed a number of The firm’s energy and daylight modeling “projected that the
challenges. The biggest, O’Donnell said, “was how to successfully exterior sunshades would function as desired, but we hadn’t done
incorporate the 21st-century educational specifications—the required this type of detail before in our office and wanted to make sure
program of spaces—into a conventional, 1960s-era, double-loaded they were also aesthetically pleasing, said Peter James AIA, LEED
corridor building. For example, the [education specifications] called AP BD+C, an associate at Perkins Eastman DC.
for significantly larger classrooms. If we retained the double-loaded “The final result,” James said, “was a great collaboration
corridor configuration, the existing rectangular classrooms would between the design team, the general contractor, the installer, and
have had to become even longer rectangles in plan. Such an overly the fabricator.” O’Donnell added that there was one additional,
long, awkward shape would have constrained their use for the unanticipated benefit from using the shades: “The Capitol Hill
varied modes of teaching commonly used today.” Restoration Society was very excited about the shades both as a
So instead, he continued, “we decided to expand the classrooms means of enhancing the performance of the building and, interest-
the other way, capturing the former corridor space into them [by ingly, as a means of reducing bird collisions with the glass.”
shifting to a single-loaded plan]. This created very gracious, flexible The newly-built wing houses the school’s cafeteria, gymnasium,
classrooms that are more square in shape. And it had the added administration spaces, a media center, an outdoor classroom, a
benefit of moving the corridor space to the east face of the building, kitchen, and loading and storage spaces. “The cafeteria and the
which transformed the building circulation from being dark and very gym feature a very large, operable partition that can open both
institutional in character to being daylight-filled, with expansive rooms into each other,” O’Donnell said. “This makes them useful
views over the park and the surrounding community. Moving for large gatherings and together the rooms are striped for full
through the building is a wonderful and engaging experience now.” court basketball. Both are actively used together for after school
Another challenge in renovating the academic wing concerned activities organized by the Department of Parks and Recreation.”
its orientation to the sun. “If this were a new building, we would The new wing also includes a lab space for FoodPrints, the
have tried to orient the classrooms to be facing either south or school’s sustainable agriculture program, and the school’s garden
north, so that we could easily minimize solar heat gain and reduce for supporting that program is located just outside the new wing.
glare from the sun in the instructional spaces,” O’Donnell said. “FoodPrints is a program that integrates health and wellness into
“The existing building, however, was rotated 90 degrees away the curriculum through active, hands-on activities like gardening
from the optimal orientation and all of its classrooms faced either and cooking,” O’Donnell said. “The school had an existing garden
east or west. With the school’s expansive ribbon-windows, the and a food lab, and the community wanted the new spaces to be
classrooms then bore the full brunt of the sun in the morning and as good, if not better, than the existing ones. In the new design, the
afternoon and to fend off the heat and glare.” As a consequence, he garden is given pride of place, right on the corner of 12th and E streets.
said, “teachers always had the classroom shades pulled down, It’s the foreground for the addition, and a major feature of the
minimizing natural light and blocking views over Capitol Hill.” building’s new civic presence. The food lab, located on the second
The solution was to add sun shades. “After running an energy floor, is directly adjacent to a roof-top, outdoor classroom with a
analysis with our engineering team,” O’Donnell said, “we determined partial green roof. As a result, learning can move seamlessly from
that installing an external shade on the west façade would reduce inside to outside.”
heat gain on the building, allowing us to reduce both the HVAC Being a new-built structure, the added wing could employ a
system’s size and the amount of glare in the classroom. The shades different approach to admitting light and managing heat gain. “The
are above the children and teachers’ heads, providing direct views Kalwall translucent insulated panels used in the gym and the cafeteria
out across the Hill, and because of the spacing of the tubes [that clerestory provide filtered daylight without glare, reducing the need
make up the shades], they can also see up through the shades to the for artificial lighting in the space,” James said. “We also used clear
sky. So the new shades reduce energy consumption and enhance glazing at the ground level to provide visual connection with the
the learning environment. And as an added benefit, they animate recreation field.”
what was a previously a long, boring façade.”

46 REFRESHER COURSE