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Following World War II, many schools in the U.S. were designed like other buildings intended to hold large numbers of people.

鈥淎 lot of schools were built on prison floor plans,鈥� said Whitney Hennion, a Vancouver Public Schools project manager and a former professional architect. 鈥淚t was like they just took the prison floor plan and said, 鈥極h, we’ll make this a classroom.’ You can see it in all the hallways; it’s either a radial plan or a central corridor. It’s kind of depressing.鈥�

Fortunately for educators and students in Vancouver, Washington, postwar schools are beginning to be replaced with money from a $458 million bond measure approved by voters in 2017. One is Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, at 4801 Idaho St. LSW Architects designed a 68,000-square-foot facility that is being built by general contractor Robinson Construction on the same property where the previous structure was demolished.

The main entrance will face the intersection of Idaho Street and Boise Avenue, and the building will be served by two parking lots. Separate drop-off and pickup areas for buses and visitors are expected to improve traffic on adjacent streets.

Unlike a hub-and-spoke or central corridor floor plan of a postwar school, the new two-story King Elementary will have an 鈥楲’ shape. One wing will hold 26 classrooms, mostly partitioned. The other wing will hold a gymnasium, common areas, administrative offices and community-oriented spaces.

鈥淲e’re definitely not a prototype here,鈥� Hennion said. 鈥淲e want each school to really reflect the community that it’s from. I’m a trained architect and worked in that field for 10 years, so to come over to the owner side and see that expectation or philosophy is really nice, because depending on what district you work for it’s all over the map.鈥�

Along with classrooms and administrative offices, the new building will feature a variety of adaptable spaces that would likely never have been considered when the original building was constructed in 1971. Prominent among them are the commons, which doubles as the cafeteria and also has a low-rise stage for presentations. This space will be able to host many different kinds of events, which fits with design choices for a residential feel rather than an institutional one, both inside and out.

Exterior materials include brick masonry and fiber cement panels. On the inside, vaulted ceilings are intended to let in more daylight, with a two-story gallery space adjacent to the entrance featuring large, spherical LED fixtures able to change color to suit a theme or event.

鈥淚t’s going to be a huge shock for (staffers and students) to have so much natural light,鈥� Hennion said.

The old school was basically built around a central library, forcing students to pass through the space to reach classrooms and other areas. The new school’s media center will indeed be prominent, with floor-to-ceiling glass; however, instead of being an obstacle, it will serve a distinct purpose and be comfortably accessible.

鈥淲e still wanted the library to be a central focus,鈥� Hennion said. 鈥淎nd (the school) has quite a few events as far as the community coming in, and they do a lot of food-centric family activities, so really the push for this was really to make this a community school and very welcoming to the community.鈥�

Construction is expected to finish this summer, in time for the start of the 2020-21 school year.