Commercial Design Awards 2022 Winner: Lifestyle

Education is ever evolving. With new research comes new understandings, leading to innovation and advancement in the learning process. But what happens when the school buildings no longer support the teachers and students inside? For phase one of a multiphased construction and renovation process to Maplecrest Elementary School in Lebanon, Missouri, the team from Sapp Design Architects looked not only at what the school district needed now, but what they needed next.

“I feel like there were several goals within this project. We had the new addition, and we had the renovation of the existing multipurpose room to expand their cafeteria,” says Jennifer Fick, Interior Designer at Sapp Design Architects. “I think the main goal was just that the school’s building was only about 57% of the square footage required for the student population.”

A common thread connecting both the re-imagined existing spaces and newly constructed ones was to match the school’s modern teaching approach with flexible classroom and common spaces, while also keeping future growth in mind. First constructed in 1955, the original Maplecrest school building includes several additions—without much focus put towards cohesion or adaptability. “Education used to be more confined to a single classroom. Students sit there and the teacher teaches to them for eight hours a day,” says Architect and Project Manager Kristi Beattie. “Now it’s much more project based, collaborative, interactive, one-to-one. So, the spaces that we’re designing have to be able to adapt to that new teaching method.”

A forward-thinking focus was put on modern teaching methods—propelling the school into the 21st century. “To do that, we had to make every design vision an opportunity to create space for learning,” says Fick. Overhead garage-style doors can be opened, for lunchtime or collaborative learning, and then closed to create two independently functioning classroom spaces. “Every move was intentional for learning,” adds Fick.

And while the school building itself is for second and third grade students, the newly built gymnasium serves as a gathering place for students district wide and as a symbol of community pride. According to Fick, “the Lebanon community—they love to emphasize their school colors and their mascot, Buzz, so balancing that with this idea that this was just phase one was extremely important.