The Amherst Exempted Village School District master plan included consolidating and combining two of their aged elementary school buildings, Schupe and Harris Elementary, into a new 900-student, PK-3 facility on the current site of their existing middle school. The new 119,000-square-foot facility was budgeted at $26M and utilized the Construction Manager at Risk delivery method.  

The GPD design team began the design process by engaging the district in Educational Visioning conducted by our in-house educational planner to identify key objectives. Using insight from the visioning sessions, GPD’s planner led tours of numerous recently designed schools in order to finalize that process.

The result was a new facility focused on student-based learning. The classrooms for each grade level are organized around a collaboration area and there are no corridors within the building. Classrooms have garage doors that open up to the collaboration areas and walls include movable partitions between classrooms allowing, teachers the opportunity for team teaching and individual learning. Each collaboration area has a unique color scheme with interactive technology and monitors on movable carts and includes hard and soft flexible seating options. Both inside and outside, the new building is a place where children can thrive educationally and socially.