The Collaborative Learning Commons: Physical Space and Educational Philosophy
A large, open space for collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking in their school helps prepare students for success in today's world. The Collaborative Learning Commons is much more than just a physical space, it’s an educational philosophy. It transforms the way students learn by promoting collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. With its focus on student […]
Designing Schools as Safe Havens
Safe, secure schools are places where learning and healthy development can thrive. School safety includes programs, behaviors, and risk reduction efforts that improve students’ well-being and help them succeed within a safe environment. School security is fundamentally about keeping people who shouldn’t be there out while ensuring that the people who should be there are […]
Springman Middle School Recognized as Learning By Design’s 2025 Outstanding Project
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 Issue of Learning By Design Magazine Springman Middle School in suburban Chicago underwent a comprehensive renovation and expansion conducted by FGMA. Built in 1954, Springman was functionally obsolete by the early 2000s. FGMA reprogrammed, renovated and expanded the school with two additions and myriad design updates. One […]
Learner-Centered Spaces for Innovation and Sustainability
Student-centered learning can be supported by healthy, safe and sustainable environments that allow active participation, collaboration, flexible grouping, and tech integration. Learner-Centered Spaces Learning pedagogy is shifting away from the traditional “teacher-focused” classrooms. Those classrooms were designed to provide a prescribed package of knowledge where the teacher acts as the primary source of knowledge, essentially […]
Q&A: Wayfinding for PK-12 Schools
Two FGMA interior designers weigh in on how planning for wayfinding in architectural design impacts the ways in which students and faculty experience their schools. Wayfinding is more about natural human behavior than just signage; it’s about how colors, materials and layout help people easily navigate a space. In PK-12 schools, where children interact with […]
Next Generation Learning Spaces to Improve Learning in Schools
Where we learn affects how we learn. School buildings and learning spaces can be (re)designed to foster collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, communication, citizenship, and wellness for 21st-century teaching and learning. How Has the History of School Planning Affected the Learning Environment? I helped Robin Accetta Riley when she was working on her dissertation at Virginia […]
Partnership with FGMA Supports New Era for Queen Bee School District
A New Home for Queen Bee School District Operations Founded in 1860, Queen Bee School District 16 continuously grows and changes to meet the challenges of each generation. Today, the district serves almost 1,800 students in an early childhood center, two elementary schools and a middle school in Glendale Heights, one of Chicago’s western suburbs. […]
Chelsea Intermediate School Recognized by Learning by Design
Learning by Design recognizes Frankfort SD 157c Chelsea Intermediate School as an outstanding project
Creating Spaces for Neurodiverse Students
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 School Business Affairs magazine issue. Strategies for changing the school’s physical environment to benefit special-needs students Students have returned to the classroom after the pandemic, but the impact of COVID-19 on their learning is still evident. Students’ anxiety and depression are reported to be much higher than […]
Chelsea Intermediate Wins 2024 IASB Award of Distinction
