Alvarado Middle School

New Haven Unified School District

This project includes three diverse elements: a library, administrative offices and special education classrooms. A key challenge was to express the buildings’ sustainable practices in their exterior form in a visually compelling and exciting way, while maintaining organizational clarity. Walkways and landscaped areas occupy the spaces between buildings to provide more natural light and to create multiple access points between the parking lot and the main part of the campus.

Maximum transparency is provided on the interior of the library and administration building through window walls. The windows foster a feeling of openness, allow users to have visual contact with each other, provide good supervision and bring natural light from one space into another. The project won a Project-in-Design Award of Merit in the 2008 CASH/AIACC Leroy F. Greene Design Awards program.

Key Elements

2008 CASH/AIACC Award of Merit in the Project-in-Design Category

Creates a new campus identity with an emphasis on natural light and transparency between buildings

“Creative and Proactive Problem Solving. Aedis understands and supports NHUSD’s commitment to providing the best possible teaching and learning environments for our students and staff.”

– Kari McVeigh, Superintendent of New Haven Unified School District