Page 64 - Spring_2018

ArchDC Spring 2018.qxp_Fall 2017 2/22/18 9:14 AM Page 62

Renovated courtyard of
Project: Tubman Elementary School Tubman Elementary School.
Courtyard Renovation,
3101 13th Street, NW, Washington, DC
Architects of Record: ISTUDIOarchitects
Structural Engineers: BEI Structural Engineers
MEP Engineers: Setty & Associates
Civil Engineers: AMT LLC
Contractor: Broughton Construction

Teaching Moments
Teaching Moments

The Revitalization of

Tubman Elementary’s Courtyard

by Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP

Tubman Elementary is a DC public school, constructed
in 1970 in the heart of the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Though not overcrowded, Tubman’s spaces are heavily
used by its 500 students and 52 faculty. Yet the courtyard
at its center was overgrown and rarely entered.
To engage young minds and promote diverse
interests, the DC Public Schools are experimenting
with many ways to expand learning beyond the “data
dump” of traditional classroom instruction. One such
program of DC’s Office of the State Superintendent for
Education (OSSE), known as “Eat healthy, stay
healthy,” promotes the teaching of cooking as both a
valuable life skill and a demonstration of many basic
scientific principles. OSSE launched a pilot program to
provide outdoor kitchens at three public schools for
this purpose. Tubman was selected as one of the three,
and the underused courtyard was the obvious location.
The program consisted of a pavilion to cover an
open-air classroom along with a storage shed and an
outdoor teaching kitchen. Following meetings with
parents, OSSE added a gathering space for the school
community to the program, and as the project developed,
raised planters for a “curriculum garden” replaced
most of the ornamental plantings.
In a curriculum garden, students grow edibles.
As with cooking, this is viewed in multiple ways: as a
useful life skill; to connect children with the source of
food; and to provide another way for students to
encounter information. For example, students learn
climatological sciences in the classroom, but having a
growing garden provides a different and more direct
connection to the effects of sunlight, rain, insects, and
the seasons.
A design-build contract was awarded to
Broughton Construction, who brought in ISTUDIO,
based on the firm’s large portfolio of public school

62 TEACHING MOMENTS