neelysutter_IDES421_finalproject

Paddock Lane Elementary School

EGD PACKAGE Neely Sutter | IDES 421 | 2018

PADDOCK LANE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BEATRICE, NEBRASKA Paddock Lane Elementary School is one of the four neighborhood elementaries in Beatrice, Nebraska. Although all four schools were originally the same floorplan, Paddock has taken on additional roles and extra square footage over the years.

Currently, Paddock

houses over 75% of

Beatrice special education students and the towns pre-school.

With

those

two

programs

and

the

confusing additions that have been made over the years the school is in dire need of an EGD package. The EGD package should work to aid in navigation, communicate with all student types, and bring new life and color to the building.

MATERIALS & STYLE The existing school has a light material palette with tan brick and chevron wood.

The exterior and hallways of the building consist of medium tan brick with plenty natural light coming into the hallways.

The existing materials informed the softer color choices and use of natural materials.

The use of more natural color schemes also allows for a more effective learning environment. Design studies on spaces for children have found that the traditional primary colors used in schools can be distracting for learning, especially for younger children. Natural materials and soft colors have been found to create the most relaxing and effective learning environment (Torelli).

SUSTAINABILITY Recycled wood material offers a more affordable,

sustainable

and

natural

signage choice for the school. The use of large wood panels pairs nicely with the existing brick. A special direct-printing technique gives an opportunity for natural textures to come through the wood panels.

This allows for the natural color palette to shine through and enhance comfortable learning environments.

CHARACTERS Studies have found that Children experience more successful

These landmarks needed to be simple but memorable, something

wayfinding when visual cues and landmarks are verbally pointed

that would stick within students minds when they tried to navigate

out or acknowledged by an adult (Lingwood). This strategy was the

on their own. This lead to the development of characters that can

inspiration to create landmarks that could easily be verbally called

function as landmarks. This characters are simple, clean and can be

out by teachers within the school.

easily described – “The small purple character with an oval belly and smiling”.

CHARACTER PAIRINGS The characters are also paired with simpler symbols – “the purple

This ties into the technique of landmark-pairing (https://www.

oval” – and patterns – “the oval pattern” - that are within the same

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4357248/) which uses multiple

language and style. These three components are able to reinforce

landmarks to get students to pay attention to the landmarks that

each other as students work to navigate through the building.

are within their own route.

3rd - 4th Grade Common Space & Adult Zone Preschool Kindergarten - 2nd Grade 5th Grade

SCHOOL ZONES Characters

have

been

developed

to

represent the different zones/age levels of the school. Zones have been established based on grades and classroom type (general education vs. special education) and common spaces.

Children within the school will be able to grow with the characters and graduate from characters each year as they also move classrooms around the school. The characters also allow for students to not have to rely on text or literacy levels in order to understand the signage.

Room Identification

Restrooms

Wayfinding Hubs

SIGNAGE TYPES There were three main signage types needed at Paddock Elementary: Room identificfation signs, wayfinding signs, and restroom signs.

It was important that all of these signs worked together and within the same design aesthetic. It was also important to design all of these signs with children in mind. All of the signage types include a symbol, character, or pattern to help students navigate.

ROOM IDENTIFICATION

Paddock Lane has a large population of special education or special needs children in it’s school population. To be as inclusive as possible to these students universal design standards were applied to room identification signs. Every sign is layed out with ADA text, braille, and identification graphics (pattern & symbol) to help all students navigate.

RESTROOMS

Restrooms signage was also set up according to ADA. The school has several types of restroom facilities, including restrooms in most of the classrooms. The restroom signage is flexible enough to accomodate all restroom types, yet will always meet universal design standards.

WAYFINDING HUBS

The main Wayfinding hub is located just inside the main school entry. This entry point is where almost all children will enter the school in the morning and is the secure location for visitors throughout the day. The large graphic, direct-printed on a large scale wooden wall will greet people as they enter through the vestibule. This is also the introduction to age characters and school zones. Other hubs will be located at the two east entrances.

CLASSROOM MARKERS

Additional wayfinding elements will be around each of the classroom entrances. The zones and classroom entrances will be color coded, pattern coded and will include the more traditional universal room tag signage.

CLASSROOM MARKERS

The zone-specific patterns will guide people into and along the zone hallways.

A light wood frame will wrap each classroom entry corner and will be the base for symbol signage, room name and the universal room tag. The use of color and pattern will be consisten in all hallways and will be a major navigation tool throughout the building.

HALL UPPER SIGNAGE

Within the zoned hallways, characters will interact and guide students into their classrooms. This upper signage type will serve as major landmarks on students day-to-day routes. There is opportunity for additional graphics to be added to the hallways to add color, interest, and ambiance.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

For large sections of the building that are more complicated to reach a combination of signage types will be necessary. The preschool branch is one of these cases, and will use all wayfinding tools (character, upper signage,

color,

pattern)

to

bring

attention and direct students into their proper classrooms.

REFERENCES Lingwood, Jamie, Mark Blades, Emily K. Farran, Yannick Courbois, and Danielle Matthews.

“Encouraging 5-year Olds to Attend to Landmarks: A Way to Improve Children’s

Wayfinding Strategies in a Virtual Environment.” Advances in Pediatrics. 2015.

Accessed August 08, 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4357248/.

“Noun Project.” The Noun Project. Accessed August 08, 2018. https://thenounproject.com/.

Torelli, Louis. “Landscape for Learning: The Impact of Classroom Design on Infants and

Toddlers.” Earlychildhood NEWS - ArticleReading Center. Accessed August 08,

2018.http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article viewaspx?ArticleID=238.

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