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Close-up view of the rotated blocks of the Heights,
with the brick rain-screen system wrapping both
vertical and horizontal surfaces.

Pivot Point
Pivot Point All photos © Laurian Ghinitoiu

The Heights Signals a New Direction

for Arlington Public Schools

by G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

The Heights is a different kind of school in almost every (Bjarke Ingels Group), based in Copenhagen and with an office
respect, starting with the simple fact that the word “school” in New York, as the design architect. The Washington office of
does not appear in its name. Strictly speaking, the name refers LEO A DALY served as the executive architect.
to the building, which accommodates two distinct educational “Arlington County chose our team because they wanted a
institutions within the Arlington Public Schools (APS) system, transformative project,” said William Kline, FAIA, LEED AP,
each unusual in its own right: the H-B Woodlawn Secondary vice president and managing principal of LEO A DALY. Indeed,
Program, successor to a school that was once known colloquially BIG is known for creating striking architectural compositions,
as “Hippie High” for its unconventional curriculum and often relying on geometries that challenge assumptions about
administration, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Program, which the appropriate form of a particular building type. Examples
offers special education for students with severe intellectual include VIA 57 West, a mostly residential building in Manhattan
disabilities. H-B Woodlawn itself was the result of a merger of two shaped like a contorted pyramid, and the twisted twin towers
schools: the Woodlawn Program, founded in 1971 as an alternative of the Grove condominium at Grand Bay, in Miami’s Coconut
senior high school where students and teachers had equal voices Grove neighborhood. Meanwhile, LEO A DALY has a track
in its governance, and Hoffman-Boston, an equally progressive record as both executive architect and design architect for many
junior high school founded in 1972 where students learned at large-scale, often complex projects.
their own pace in a relatively unstructured environment. BIG’s pivoting towers in Miami may have served as one
A different kind of school deserves—perhaps requires—a precedent for the parti—or central design concept—of the
different kind of architectural expression. To ensure this, APS Heights, which is organized around a series of five stacked
hired the internationally renowned architecture firm BIG bars, with each of the upper four rotated 22.5 degrees and

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