Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

New Avon Grove High School Includes Multitude of Flexible, Collaborative Spaces

  • 04/08/19

KCBA is excited to announce that the firm has been selected as the architect for Avon Grove School District’s facilities program. This represents a major development in the school district’s multi-year facilities planning process, a community-wide effort that explored a wide range of potential scenarios to meet long-term needs.

Avon Grove School

Located in southern Chester County Pennsylvania, Avon Grove is a rapidly growing community. While well maintained, the existing secondary school buildings have operational challenges, are incapable of accommodating projected enrollment growth, and are unsuited to the district’s innovative, student-directed academic program. The capital plan that has been chosen for implementation features the construction of a new high school and conversion of the former high school into a middle school.

The first phase of the program is the establishment of the new high school on a beautiful, currently vacant site known as the Sunnyside property. The rolling 153-acre tract will be transformed into a vibrant new hub of activity with a full gamut of indoor and outdoor student and community spaces. The facility will initially house 1750 students in grades 9-12 with the capability to easily expand in the future to accommodate 2200.

The program of the new high school includes a multitude of flexible, collaborative, and project-based spaces which will be interwoven to yield a dynamic platform for learning and development. Key project priorities include the incorporation of advanced security equipment and protocols; a building configuration that invites heavy community use of meeting, arts, and athletic spaces; integration of architectural and cultural features that celebrate the history of the region; utilization of sustainable, energy efficient design strategies and building practices; and resourceful allocation of taxpayer dollars.

Once high school students have relocated to the new building, the current high school will be renovated and converted into a middle school. In addition to integrating advanced, age-appropriate learning environments, building systems and materials will be upgraded and modernized. The project will also enable a grade realignment with 6th grade added to the current seventh and eighth grade middle school model, thereby increasing student capacity at the elementary level.

In addition to the opportunity to contribute to a transformational building campaign, the team at KCBA is pleased to renew a long-term, successful professional relationship. Previous collaborations with the school district include the design of Avon Grove Intermediate School (currently housing grades 3-6), the design of the district kindergarten center which is linked to Penn London Elementary School, and the 2007 feasibility study that led to the purchase of the Sunnyside Property.

Featured

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • school building with glowing circuit board patterns

    AI Is Coming to Schools — But Most School Buildings Still Run on Institutional Memory

    As school districts race to introduce AI into classrooms, administration, and curriculum planning, another conversation is happening behind the scenes: How prepared are school facilities themselves for the operational demands AI will create?

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Minnesota District Converts Middle School into Community Hub

    White Bear Lake Area Schools in White Bear Lake, Minn., recently announced the end of a major renovation project that converted a former middle school into a new centralized district and community hub, according to a news release.