Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Quinebaug Valley Community College: Quinebaug Middle College (Addition)

  • 09/01/15
Quinebaug Middle College

PHOTOS © PAUL BURK PHOTOGRAPHY

Conceived in 2006, Quinebaug Middle College (QMC) was established with the same guiding principles the first middle college in the U.S. at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY, was founded on: to provide an alternate public high school where students who otherwise may be at risk could be immersed in a college setting, and through support, collaboration, rigorous academics and exposure to the world of higher education become effective learners. While rural eastern Connecticut may appear to be in stark contrast to LaGuardia’s urban context, similar issues and challenges exist, and the middle college model has yielded significant results for the at-risk student and nontraditional learner.

QMC’s first students enrolled in 2008 in limited available space shared with Quinebaug Valley Community College. Amenta Emma Architects’ 40,000-squarefoot addition project which opened in early 2014 added new classrooms; science and computer labs; music, art and fitness spaces; and administrative and faculty areas — along with common collaboration and lounge spaces — to accommodate an enrollment of 200 students. While they are dedicated spaces for the middle college during standard high school hours, all spaces are used by the college community at other times, reinforcing the client’s goal that the new area is a fully integrated extension of the existing college environment.

The design of the addition highlights the building’s relationship to its site, creating visual transparency and reinforcing connections to formal and informal exterior space and the campus’s wooded edges. Clad in a terra cotta rain-screen, the LEED Silver building makes reference to the scale and brick masonry material palette of the original campus buildings but with an innovative interpretation. As described by QMC Principal Gino LoRicco, the design of the building has created not only state-of-the-art instructional and collaborative space, but also an environment that allows students to feel calm, comfortable, focused and, most importantly, academically successful.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • 144-Year-Old High-School Campus Debuts New Academic Facility

    San Diego High School (SDHS) in San Diego, Calif., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new student services and classroom building; the project is part of a larger SDHS Whole Site Modernization project that began in 2022.

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • Armstrong World Industries Acquires Parallel Architectural Products

    Armstrong World Industries, provider of interior and exterior architectural applications, recently announced that it has acquired the Colorado-based Parallel Architectural Products, according to a news release.

  • Massachusetts K–12 District Selects Architect for New Junior High

    Swansea Public Schools in Swansea, Mass., recently announced that it has selected Finegold Alexander Architects to design a new junior high school for the district, according to a news release. The firm will create the Feasibility Study and Schematic Design for Joseph Case Junior High School after a lengthy selection process by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).