The Winston Preparatory School New Classroom Building and Master Plan

The Winston Preparatory School’s Norwalk campus consists of 13.2 acres and seven existing buildings. 7group in collaboration with other Alliance for Regeneration members engaged Winston students, faculty, staff and the community in a highly interactive master planning process focused on regenerative design and development practices to create a campus Master Plan. Winston’s “educate the whole child” philosophy aligns with this regenerative/whole living systems approach in ways that allow the school’s curricula to be aimed at restoring and regenerating the health of a degraded site and to optimize the Winston experience as “a colony of learners”.

The first building to be developed in this Master Plan will house classroom space for 120 students, along with specialized space utilized extensively for focused one-on-one teaching sessions critical to effectively address the uniqueness of each student in this academic community with learning differences.

Given the many acknowledged and significant positive effects of indoor environmental quality on the learning process, the structure’s high performance design not only reduces energy consumption by nearly 75%, but provides extensive daylighting (approximately 85% daylight autonomy factor) and demand-controlled underfloor ventilation. An arrival plaza with storm water bio-retention provides an interactive rain garden, along with an outdoor amphitheater/stage for outdoor assemblies, educational activities and graduation. The site habitat restoration and regeneration efforts provide ongoing educational opportunities, including “nature classrooms”, and target community involvement intended to seed the future health of the region’s watershed.

Download PDF

• Creating an optimal and healthy indoor learning environment for students at the Winston Preparatory School was crucial to the new classroom building’s design. Extensive daylight permeates classroom areas and controlled underfloor ventilation systems significantly improve the health and wellness of the school’s occupants.
• Daylighting simulations were used to help maximize design opportunities, resulting in a Daylight Autonomy Factor of over 85% in educational spaces, not only reducing energy costs but also improving the students’ learning environment.
• During the development of the new Master Plan for the school’s campus, the project team developed strategies for improving the health of the degraded land and also the entire watershed. Four of the school’s original buildings are slated for demolition, consolidating into one new classroom building, reducing the site’s impervious surface area and restoring the natural flow and infiltration of rainwater.

Location
Norwalk, CT, USA

Project Owner
Winston Preparatory
School

Architect
John Boecker,
Design Architect;
M2 Architects,
Administrative Architect

Building Size
12,700 sf

Completed
August 2013

Cost
$5,500,000
(First Building)

LEED^® Status
Pursuing LEED
Platinum (NC 2009)