Our team was tasked with re-envisioning an east Baltimore high school with a storied past, its current form a product of the set of principles and goals produced by participants of the famous "Baltimore Charette."

The Charette took place in 1969 over an intense two-week period. Education Facilities Lab's Sherwood Kohn, who documented the event described it as "an experiment in participatory democracy and planning initiated by the United States Office of education…participants were involved in night and day sessions of sufficient intensity to produce friction, frustration and creative synthesis of ideas and concepts. The fact that they were there in the school was a constant reminder of the realities with which they had to deal…” (Kohn, page 3). The 132 participants included community members - most of them African American residents of East Baltimore, Baltimore City Public Schools staff, teachers, facilitators, architects, and professors from around the country with their graduate students in tow. Adding drama to the proceedings were a handful of activists from the Black Panther Party.

The concepts and principles that grew out of that Charette reflect how deeply the new school symbolized the "black community's hopes and dreams and aspirations...."In the new Dunbar, students would achieve confidence and self-respect. They would know who they are and they would achieve dignity, independence and a realistic attitude toward the world. They would come out of school equipped, not to accept a blue collar, dead-end low-paying job in a white dominated organization, but to pursue a career in business, industry, or the professions that would offer opportunities to advance to the limits of their abilities.” (Kohn, page 36).

The school, designed by Caudill Rowlett School and constructed in the early 1970s, was programmatically innovative. The goal was to create a learning experience that emphasized self reliance and accountability. Its unique partnerships with Sojourner Truth Community College located on the adjacent site, and John Hopkins University a few blocks away, positioned it as a Health Professionals magnet school. Recognizing the important roles that schools play as anchors in the community, the school building program also extended to including a theater, a recreation center and family health services.

Thirty years later, the Baltimore City Schools Board of Directors felt it was time to re-establish the school's reputation as a leader in education. The community around the school had changed, and recognized it more for its prowess in basketball, than its innovative academic curriculum and partnerships. They decided it was time to invest in this community and its students, and sought to commit an infusion of energy, expertise and funds to renovate the aging facility in an attempt to bring it closer to fulfilling the promise with which it had been conceived.

A budget crisis halted plans for this full renovation and addition, however, a limited scope renovation of the school was undertaken by GWWO.

Sources:

Baltimore City Schools (http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/11764).

Gladden, Elzee C, and Jessie B. Gladden, "The Dunbar Chronicle: A Case Study." Journal of Negro Education Vol 57, No. 3 (1988) © 1988 Howard University. (http://archives.ubalt.edu/bcps/pdfs/R0008_BCPS_S01_B01_F074.pdf).

Kohn, Sherwood D, Experiment in Planning an Urban High School: The Baltimore Charette. Educational Facilities Labs, Inc. NY, NY. Case Studies 13. November 1969 (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED036108)

Overarching Project Goals:

• Reinvigorate the schools’ academic focus with an interior configuration of spaces that support its particular brand of teaching and learning

• Create an interior environment with more natural light and views out

• Create a more inviting public presence at street level, and to the community

• Preserve and honor the past accomplishments of the school, while providing an environment for new and greater achievement

Curricular Goals that intersect and can powerfully shape the school’s physical environment:

• Creating powerful contexts for learning that prepare all students to succeed in higher education

• Offering a context and pedagogy for academic rigor, as well as real-world relevance

• Putting students – their observations, their actions, their reflections, and their projects, at the center of learning

Education models for Space and Place-making:

• Small Learning Communities

• Teaching in Interdisciplinary teams

• Project Based Learning

• Service Learning

• Work-based Learning

Project Details:

• 261,000 SF

• 4 Stories

Perkins + Will provided:

• Programming

• Education Facility Planning

• Schematic Design

• Design Development

• Design Direction during Construction Document Phase

To support the school’s enhanced curriculum, this design creates four small learning communities: the 9th Grade Academy, located over the ground floor public spaces is the symbolic foundation upon which the the three Pathways (each two stories) for Biotechnology, Diagnostic Health and Therapeutic Health sit. Corridors of varying widths, wide stairways, and student common areas allow for spontaneous interaction, and the concrete plaza fountain is recreated as terraced garden plots to provide project based learning and community connections.

General classrooms are located along the perimeter, and a zone of integrated laboratory classrooms, prep areas and storage fills the center. Science Prep Rooms, where students conduct experiments are located along corridors to make their research transparent to all students. To facilitate teaching and learning outside of the classroom a variety of space are available: Group rooms to be used by students as well as teachers for quick meetings or sometimes project spaces.  Corridors are wide enough for informal interaction. They open up to an informal study Commons, and also lead to quiet areas for independent study.