West Feliciana Parish Middle School

Architect: Holly & Smith Architects, Hammond
Location: St. Francisville
Cost: $8.1 million
Project design team: Jeffrey K. Smith, Cassie Ragan and Chris Bankston
General Contractor: Arkel Constructors Inc., Baton Rouge

A growing school system in a region known for its historic architecture needed a middle school for 700 students. The new facility includes classrooms, administrative spaces, restroom facilities, resource center, cafeteria, kitchen, gymnasium and locker rooms.

In addition to the traditional school functional spaces, a new teaching philosophy called "team teaching" was to be introduced into the design. This concept requires additional functional spaces to accommodate the Team Teaching Studios at each grade level in the classroom building.

The use of exploratory classrooms and synergistic laboratories was also a new requirement. The site is a beautiful rural setting with sloping terrain, large oak trees and a picturesque pond.

The solution utilizes the permanence of masonry construction, which exists in the region. It also addresses the antebellum agrarian estates by separating the main functional spaces on the site rotating around the ravine sloping down to the pond. The main classroom building announces its entrance with a Romanesque arch and has a two-story formal presence facing the main street. The cafeteria and kitchen building is freestanding, connected by outdoor covered porches symbolizing the more informal barn vernacular of this area.

The use of octagons on either end of the classroom building creates the hinge point for the campus as it rotates around the site following the natural topography.