In Ellenwood, Ga., a southeast suburb of Atlanta, Perkins&Will has partnered with Clayton County Public Schools and MEJA Construction to create a $85 million secondary school. Morrow High School, which opened in fall 2022, serves more than 2,200 students in Clayton County, a community with students from over 30 countries.
The curving, S-shaped classroom building follows the ridge that runs across the greenfield site, reducing impact on its wetlands. The three-story classroom building connects via skybridge to an athletic building with basketball and volleyball courts, an auxiliary gym, weight room, and locker rooms. In addition to the two main buildings, students throughout the school district can access the new stadium for football and track and field, as well as facilities for baseball, softball, and tennis.
At each bend in the building, common spaces encourage students to socialize and learn in between classes. Large windows at every bend of the building’s S-curved shape allow natural light to enter the center of the facility, encouraging health and wellness.
The design also has a built-in wellness component by encouraging students to keep moving, with lighting, locker location, flooring, and colors emphasizing a sense of movement and providing access to natural light and the outdoors. All of the indoor spaces have views of the site’s natural surroundings.
“In this design, we tried to capture a vision for the future of this community that’s dynamic, healthy, and at the forefront of public education,” Jared Serwer, Associate Principal and Design Lead, Perkins&Will, said at last year’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We have worked to develop a design that celebrates the diversity of this community and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between the sciences, the arts, career education, and athletics.”
On the Building Team:
Owner: Clayton County Public Schools
Architect: Perkins&Will
Structural engineer: Uzun + Case
Civil engineer: Eberly & Associates
MEP engineer: Andrews, Hammock & Powell
Acoustics: Acustica Design
General contractor: MEJA Construction
Related Stories
| Aug 12, 2014
Vietnam's 'dragonfly in the sky' will be covered in trees, vegetation
Designed by Vietnamese design firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects, the building will be made up of stacked concrete blocks placed slightly askew to create a soft, organic form that the architects say is reminiscent of a dragonfly in the sky.
| Aug 12, 2014
First look: Calatrava's futuristic Main Building opens at Florida Polytechnic University
The $60 million structure is wrapped in a bright-white, aluminum pergola for dramatic effect and solar shading.
| Aug 6, 2014
BIG reinvents the zoo with its 'Zootopia' natural habitat concept [slideshow]
Bjarke Ingels’ firm is looking to improve the 1960s-designed Givskund Zoo in Denmark by giving the animals a freer range to roam.
| Aug 6, 2014
25 projects win awards for design-build excellence
The 2014 Design-Build Project/Team Awards showcase design-build best practices and celebrate the achievements of owners and design-build teams in nine categories across the spectrum of horizontal and vertical construction.
| Aug 5, 2014
Shigeru Ban-designed Aspen Art Museum will open doors to public this week
After 18 month of planning and construction, the museum will open its new Shigeru Ban-designed facility to the public on August 9.
| Aug 5, 2014
K-12 School Sector Giants: Pent-up demand finally produces movement in schools market [2014 Giants 300 Report]
After a long period of anemic performance, with growth mostly driven by renovations and additions, the K-12 sector is showing renewed interest in new construction, according to BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Jul 30, 2014
Higher ed officials grapple with knotty problems, but construction moves ahead [2014 Giants 300 Report]
University stakeholders face complicated cap-ex stressors, from chronic to impending. Creative approaches to financing, design, and delivery are top-of-mind, according to BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction market benefits from improving economy, new technology [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Following years of fairly lackluster demand for commercial property remodeling, reconstruction revenue is improving, according to the 2014 Giants 300 report.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Structure Tone, Turner, and Gilbane top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, URS, and Wiss, Janney, Elstner top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.