Page 50 - Winter_2018

ArchDC Winter 2018.qxp_Winter 2018 11/27/18 9:36 AM Page 48

Stadium seating in the atrium of the Achievement Preparatory Academy. Photos © Anice Hoachlander / Hoachlander Davis Photography

Award for Excellence in Architecture

Achievement Preparatory
Academy
Washington, DC

Studio Twenty Seven
Architecture
Landscape Architects: Siteworks
Structural Engineers: Ehlert Bryan, Inc.
MEP Engineers: Setty Associates
Civil Engineers: Christopher Consultants
Acoustical Consultants: Acoustical Design Collaborative, Ltd.
General Contractor: MCN Build Exterior of the new wing.
generous circulation and mixing space, complete with stadium
Across the Anacostia River, in the Washington Highlands neigh-
stairs doubling as seating, connects lower and upper levels. This
borhood of Southeast DC, the Achievement Preparatory Academy
glass wall overlooking the courtyard also breaks up the massing of
campus sits on a hilltop. It’s a similar architectural proposition to
the new building to reflect the C-shaped plan of the original building.
Mundo Verde, in the sense that they both include existing early-
And rather than simply install a boxy, brick, three-story block on
20th-century school buildings renovated to current standards, and
the other end of campus, Studio Twenty Seven carved away from
contemporary additions in the place of empty pavement. For
that overall volume, expressing voids in bright paint that contrasts
Achievement Prep, the programming is reversed: The renovated
with the brickwork. The addition also holds a smaller interior
original 55,000-square-foot facility, once known as the Draper
courtyard at its center.
School Building, houses its elementary school students, while the
One achievement already under the school’s belt is that of
middle school occupies the 50,000-square-foot addition by Studio
LEED Gold certification for features such as green roofs and rain
Twenty Seven Architecture. The two buildings face each other
gardens. Another goal—and one that serves as the founding
across a playground courtyard, and are connected by a covered
mission of the school—is that of eliminating the achievement gap
walkway that serves both as a literal and figurative bridge
between students in poorer neighborhoods and those in wealthier
between old and new.
regions. With a unified campus that celebrates learning, the school
Where the Draper Building is composed of solidly rectilinear
has gone a long way toward elevating its students to be among the
elements, the new addition cleverly adapts this formal language to
highest-performing in the District.
meet the school’s programmatic needs within a familiar layout.
The Achievement Preparatory Academy was previously
Glazing that traces the profile of the main stairway upon the
featured in the Spring 2017 issue of ARCHITECTUREDC.
addition’s southern façade indicates the dynamism within: A
48 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT