Fayette County Public Schools launched the Rise STEM Academy for Girls in 2020-21 because district leaders are confident that supporting girls in science, technology, engineering, and math in their formative years will build their confidence to more eagerly embrace these career pathways. The program cultivates an environment where girls are encouraged to indulge their STEM interests through fun, accessible, and interactive project-based learning.
This new, 1,400-student high school was constructed in phases on the same site as its predecessor. Only the original high school’s competition gymnasium remained and was renovated to become a part of the new facility. The high school is organized by department with specialized academies for freshman and medical arts. A large, central commons is the heart of the school. Located near the media center, cafeteria and courtyard, this social hub features a social stair and showcases the community’s history and diverse student population.
The new facility features an auditorium for 700 that can be accessed separately from the rest of the building. The gymnasium and media center are also accessible without compromising the security of the rest of the school. The media center includes a coffee shop and school store to encourage student use and support after-school events. The school’s footprint is organized around a central courtyard space used for classes, independent and group study, and social activities. Traffic circulation throughout campus was redesigned to separate buses, cars and pedestrians, and to maximize green space outside the school.
Completion Date / August 2020
Location / Lexington, Ky
The new Fayette County Public Schools' STEAM & Success Academies are completely changing the way students learn. The Academies' new building, originally built in 2007 for Imani Baptist Church, was completely renovated to create a new, state-of-the-art educational environment for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) Academy and house the District’s Success Academy—a program that provides an alternative for at-risk youth who are in danger of failing to graduate. Originally housed in much smaller facilities, this renovation was intentionally designed to directly support both academies' unique, student-centered model and project-based learning. These progressive programs serve students throughout the state's second-largest school district while simultaneously engaging the local community through shared use of resources like athletics facilities, maker spaces, and a recording studio. A central, double-height multipurpose space serves as the heart of the school, providing ample space for individual and group study, inter-classroom collaboration, and social interaction. All other interior spaces were completely reconfigured to create a technology-rich, collaborative learning environment.
Video: The Client's Perspective on STEAM & Success Academies
Location / Jessamine County, Kentucky
Completion / 2020
Firm / RossTarrant Architects
Recognized as one of Kentucky’s most progressive, high-achieving alternative programs for at-risk students, the Providence School sought a renovation and addition project that would create a state-of-the-art learning environment for some of its most vulnerable students.
Students at the Providence School form a tight-knit, small learning community that is geared toward reinforcing the importance of education and doing so in a way that is inclusive and nurturing. The mission of the Providence school and the design of the renovation and new classroom addition intertwine in a way that emphasizes and supports student collaboration. Flexible and light-filled classrooms and an emphasis on school identity and branding create an environment that is far more inclusive and nurturing than institutional, redefining the alternative school experience.
Recognizing the crucial importance of the outdoor environment to academic and social development, Jessamine County Schools sought a design that would provide students with a safe but strong connection to the outdoors. The building’s design maximized outdoor views, amplifying the spacious feeling within the facility. Outside, spaces were divided into distinct zones. Community spaces support small and large group activities and social development. Quiet spaces give students space for independent study and stress reduction. Active spaces were also be included for physical activity.
Location / Madisonville Community College
Completion / 2020
Firm / RossTarrant Architects
Contained within the Gray Building, the spaces that made up the student center were unwelcoming, not student friendly and in great need of re-imagination. MCC engaged the services of RossTarrant Architects to lead a visioning and design effort that sought to create a space that provided greater student engagement and connections to exterior spaces.
By relocating some student service office and Food Service, the interior space was opened up to extend views from the interior of campus to the agrarian landscape beyond. Furniture was used to create varied seating arrangements that accommodate and promote individual and various sized group use. The Food Service was located to a readily visible yet secondary location to support students, faculty and staff remaining on campus and to promote chance encounters over lunch or coffee. Support spaces of offices, conference rooms and work spaces were created to support the various student services as well as Student Government Association and Student Organizations.
Location / Nicholasville, KY
Completion / 2021
Year / Spring 2018
Location / Mars
Competition / Volzero Marsception
Collaboration / Jonathan Ruiz & Gesu Valentin
The last few centuries have seen our Mother Earth grappling with mounting pressure towards her resources due to mankind’s quest for a better life. To relieve this mounting weight, we have been taking huge strides in our efforts to find resources on other planets like Mars for a clean and sustainable future.
Arctic M.E.W. (Mechanically Energized Water) is a Martian research center that focuses on maintaining lively spaces that support desirable living conditions and dynamic research facilities for five researchers. Using sustainability as a driving factor, Arctic M.E.W intends to create natural life on Mars through the integration of artificial intelligence, such as 3D printing, assistant drones, b.droids (robotic bioluminescent bee assistants), and virtual reality spaces.
Year / Fall 2019
Location / Guatemala
Collaboration / RossTarrant Architects
The Little Mountain School serves to reflect the natural site context as well as challenge the perception of education within the community’s value system. The school campus seeks to embody its surrounding context through its utilization of materials & its integration into the plantation agriculture. Local materials such as gabion walls, which are created from the local stone, serve to terrace the existing site while integrating the forms and students into the existing coffee bean plantation. Site integration allows for the campus and structure to embed the students into the art and science of agriculture, thus engaging the students through passive learning and providing an additional incentive for children to attend school.
For the purpose of passive cooling strategies, the four elements honored through the design are sun, wind, soil, and water. Sun and wind are honored through the campus configuration and orientation with both components situated to maximize light / shade and natural ventilation through the campus and interior classroom environment. Soil is honored in the use of rammed earth at the structural core which also serves as the teaching wall shared on both sides by each classroom space as well as access to the school garden. Water is honored through the roof collection which deposits into an underground cistern on the north side of the campus as it serves to assist the plantation’s irrigation system and school garden.
Year / Spring 2015
Collaboration / Alissa Ramburger
Individual Contribution / Drawings & Illustrations, Physical Model, Revit 3D Modeling, Renderings
The key design aspect of the Integrated Technologies Department is dynamic interaction. Dynamism manifests itself within the work station through custom storage and surface flexibility, as well as a multitude of access points and various interlocking materials. Flexibility enables individual users to work within the mode that best suits their needs while supporting learning and socialization. The work station is divided into two main components: a space for copywriting and a space for technology. The copywriting station is represented by a lime green color, while a lavender shade represents the technology station. Teal indicates a placed for collaboration and socialization at the meeting point between two users. Together, these colors form an analogous scheme that symbolizes the merging of two different departments in an advancing advertising agency.
Year / Fall 2014
Location / Lexington, Ky
Using the basic and generic shell of the Butler building at the rear of the West 6th Brewing Company, we explored and proposed a funeral parlor for the 21st century, a house for the future of death. Death is an inevitable condition of life. In design speak, it is a part of the process, perhaps the culmination, or perhaps a way point in the iteration of activities we see simply as linear. The celebration of death, the remembrance of the passing of a friend or loved one, is fundamentally human. Limbo is a place or state of oblivion, an intermediate transitional state. Similar to being in Limbo, design can lend itself to being in constant transition. This House for the Future of Death allows users to be in a transitional state where they can feel closer to their loved ones, both in spirit and in heart.
Year / Spring 2015
Location / Three Rock, Ireland
Collaboration / Third Year Interiors Studio
Individual Contribution / Leadership, Research & Programming, Space Planning, 3D Modeling in Revit, Renderings, Final Presentation Setup
For the final Spring 2015 semester project, nineteen students came together to create an office environment that encompassed the variety of design expertise gained throughout the semester. Tasked with creating a suburban office over the course of three weeks, Verge came to life through site research, integration with nature, and a constant drive for health and wellness in all aspects of design.
Verge is located just outside of Dublin, Ireland in the suburban mountains known as Three Rock. Entrenched into the earth, it is one with the environment, incorporating wellnes through the transition of indoor and outdoor spaces. Not only do they push their clients to extreme heights, but they create a pathway between community and the local cultural customs. This corporation may be new to Ireland, but they are on the verge of greatness!
Year / Spring 2016
Location / Lexington, Ky
Looking to enhance the Lexington community, this project aims to increase the feeling of safety and comfort within the Lextran system while maintaining a universal approach to all seating and functionalities. Currently, the locations associated with the Lextran system lack the safe and secure environments that would allow more of the population to utilize the system as a main transportation method. A push for community development, social interaction, and public safety manifest within a complete renovation of the Transit Center in adherence with current public transportation trends and universal guidelines. Design enhancement continues throughout the Lextran system by addressing the design of the system’s bus stops, as well as increasing the success of the user interface through clear wayfinding and signage. Overall, the redevelopment of the Lextran system enhances both the Lexington community and its urban interface through the introduction of safer environments for the Lexington population to interact with the city and with each other.