By Dorit Fromm

Not only is our system of education changing, but the "face" of students themselves is among the most significant of changes. Twenty five years ago, school children were overwhelmingly white and of Northern European ancestry, but within a few decades of today, they will be in the minority. No place illustrates this trend better than California, where more than 70 percent of K-12 students comprise Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and African Americans, among other minority groups.

Click here for chart: Total K-12 Enrollment for 2007–2008 in California. Source: California Department of Education
Generally speaking, minority students tend to come from households earning less than those of white students. Families of color struggle to find adequate jobs, housing, and health care, and often also struggle to overcome language barriers. The result is that minority students are more educationally at-risk. For California, this translates to roughly a 50 percent drop-out rate for certain minority groups, resulting in potentially dire consequences for their lives and for the state's economic future. To better educate these students, designers are looking harder at ways to make schools more reflective of culture, both of the school's sense of community and of their culturally diverse population.  


The design of educational environments is not generally targeted at specific cultures, yet schools where the design has been tailored to be culturally-responsive to its population—more personal to the student and inviting parents to participate—may better succeed in keeping students and parents engaged. "Designing for culture requires a different kind of attention," explains Paul Bunton, principal of BCA Architects, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. BCA's  recent K-12 schools have included a number of these elements. Yet among the many issues that school designers now focus on—from defensive school security to a stream-lined design process—the notion of creating a "culture fit" is one not often articulated.


"It is the spaces between that create the culture of the school," says Jennifer Devlin, principal at EHDD Architects in San Francisco. One project the firm designed, the K-5 Tenderloin Community School, serves 400 students in one of the city's toughest neighborhoods.

"We began by asking ourselves what spaces could be clustered together to create community.  We shaped the playground with spaces around it—the kindergarten classroom, the "family room," the library—so that it is a center of activity. Now it has become the cultural heart of the campus between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. as parents linger, talk, and watch their children play." In another place, outside the state-regulated 900-sq.-ft. classrooms, the designers incorporated small bays along the hallway resulting in informal student/teacher meeting spaces which, visually and physically, support the school's emphasis on one-on-one caring and dialogue with the students.  "The best of culture creates pride, and students feel respected," says Devlin.

Taking elements of a specific culture and weaving them into the design, if done with care, brings recognition and pride of ownership.  "Educational environments that connect kids not just to learning but also to the local environment can be a powerful anchor between them and the neighborhood," says designer William Leddy of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architecture. But he warns against creating a cartoon or pastiche. The catch is using the vernacular to create a sense of identity and comfort, places of gathering, and connections to the site, not simply as add-ons. It's a fine line to walk with limited school budgets, yet many ideas can be incorporated into public school design.

Case Study: A Design that Engages

BCA Architects, in its recent design of Downer Elementary School, worked with the surrounding Latino community on a school responsive to them. A number of cultural issues were addressed both in the design phase, and in the final design. The school is located in San Pablo, a town next to Richmond, Calif., with strong Latino roots. Almost half of the population speaks Spanish. The existing 1950s school was a converted junior high of a large monolithic size that dominated the surrounding residential bungalows. Kindergarteners were housed in the Shop Building; spaces for the elementary students were dark and inappropriately sized.

No surprise that there was excitement when parents heard about the prospects for a newly designed replacement. Up to 70 people from the community attended the bi-weekly design meetings for the 800-student elementary school. The community very much wanted this neighborhood school to express its Latino roots. The architects began the design discussions by presenting three variations on Spanish-style architecture, from traditional to very contemporary, and the design preference was mid-way among the styles. The off-white stucco exterior, terracotta tile roofs, and arched windows are a distillation of the Spanish style; scale, color, light, and geometric form are creatively used to add contemporary motifs, such as at the entry and the rounded wall of the library located at the school's hub. A tree-lined public plaza near the school entrance invites locals to linger after school hours and doubles as a weekend flea market. The plaza and palm courtyard, as well as a central palm quad, have built-in benches and are used as an outdoor learning space for art and science projects during the week.

Creating an open and inviting presence to the neighborhood was the goal, yet attention to security and crime prevention was essential for this neighborhood. Opaque classroom windows at base level maximize natural light while blocking immediate distractions and preventing views of electronic equipment from the exterior. Four separate play yards were created, for the on-site preschool, kindergarteners, grades 1 to 3, and grades 4 to 6. Half the schoolyard can be gated acting as a deterrent to after-hours vandalism. Parking is in a secured lot located next to the plaza. A parent room on the ground floor of the academic wing was created to further strengthen the parent/school/community relationship and facilitate volunteerism. A dedicated gym, a unique feature for an elementary school, accommodates a strong after-school program. The gym, conference room, library, and computer/multi-media center are grouped together with a separate entrance so that they can be used after-hours by the community. Development of all-perimeter fenced on-site soccer fields are planned in partnership with the city.

Click here: Downer Site and Floor Plans

The design of Downer Elementary School exceeds Title 24 requirements, with natural lighting reducing energy consumption. This sustainable thinking extended to encompass the community. When cost analysis showed that a wood or steel structure was comparably priced for the $23-million facility, the former was chosen as local trades supported wood construction, and carpentry is a well-represented skill in the area. The design uses local wood both structurally and as a recurring decorative motif. The architects incorporated specially engineered wood products, such as those that reduce wood beam widths to keep gym ceilings high; wood is also used to create deep window reveals like those found in adobe construction, and creates a focal point when used for ceiling beams. As the community enthusiastically embraced the finished school, BCA's architects prepared the large exterior wall on the gym, facing a palm quad, to receive a culturally inspired tile mural designed by students and parents.

Attitudes, patterns, symbols, and products of a particular community can be successfully integrated into the school's design. This is one way to create a sense of familiarity and support between students and the community, because they are interdependent—each holds the other's future in their hands.

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Dorit Fromm is an architect specializing in design research and communication.