This paper identifies approaches, challenges, and best practices related to planning and designing today's academic library learning spaces. As part of the Project Information Literacy (PIL) Practitioner Series, qualitative data is presented from 49 interviews conducted with a sample of academic librarians, architects, and library consultants.…

While schools wrestled with how to build a new athletic facility in the middle of a recession, Tufts University's Athletics and Operations Departments worked with a Massachusetts-based developer called Stanmar Inc. to devise a creative solution to designing, building and financing a new sports and fitness center in just under 24 months. Tufts was…

This study aims to inform the California Department of Education (CDE) in ensuring the standards contained in Title 5 appropriately promote the planning and design of healthy, safe and educationally suitable K-12 school facilities. The study gathers and analyzes K-12 facility standards in ten case study states across the country to understand…

The purpose of this study was to inform the California Department of Education (CDE) in ensuring the standards contained in Title 5 appropriately promote the planning and design of healthy, safe and educationally suitable K-12 school facilities. The study gathers and analyzes K-12 facility standards in other states across the country to understand…

Space is both an asset and a burden for colleges and universities. On the one hand, space holds enormous value for institutions; their campuses and buildings are worth, in many cases, hundreds of millions of dollars. Space is the medium in which the institution operates. Online courses have proven that education can be conducted anywhere, but most…

In the last several years, the growing demand that education institutions incorporate sustainable design and construction concepts in school facility plans has created a greater emphasis on using life-cycle costing. The use of long-lasting materials and equipment enables schools and universities to avoid the unnecessary consumption of energy and…

As the pressure on schools to meet higher and higher expectations with less and less resources increases, educators seek to explore school models which are centered on reforms that increased the likelihood of meeting this challenge. One reform initiative which has received much attention is the utilization of teacher leadership to improve school…

Schools and universities recognize that many of the people and neighborhoods they serve expect education institutions to embrace environmental stewardship and sustainable design. Standards such as the LEED-registered facility program, managed by the U.S. Green Building Council, are receiving more attention. Schools can demonstrate their commitment…

Learning stations common to many programs are shared in this vocational school that serves 12 suburbs of Boston. (MLF)

A vocational school built on a rural site at the edge of Cape Cod serves four towns. (Author/MLF)

Two identical schools employ the four major subsystems approach established by the SCSD program: structure, ceiling/lighting, environmental, and partitions. (Author/MLF)

This 3,000-student school covers 11 acres of land on its rural site and is one of the largest vocational schools in the nation. (Author)

The Park School was designed to fit into and above an outcropping of rocks thus providing varied exterior spaces, reducing the building's scale, and freeing the open spaces for playing fields. (Author/MLF)

Describes the Pompositticut Elementary School. (JF)

By transferring park land to the school committee, state support was obtained for renovating a park and building Lincoln Park Community School within its boundaries. (Author/MLF)