Weber State University starts this academic year with a modernized renovation of the David O. McKay Education building
Photos by Scot Zimmerman
Back to School at WSU
The daily life rhythms around me abruptly changed this week with the start of school. Suddenly there was a new sense of purpose and urgency in the neighborhood kids’ lives, marked by new shoes, freshly shampooed hair, and heavy backpacks.
This week, WSU students with a focus on studies in education will head into a fresh redo of a building originally built in 1972 that was completely stripped to frame and foundation and rebuilt to integrate nature into the design and abundantly fill with natural light. The David O. McKay Education Building serves multiple functions. It houses the Jerry & Vickie Moyes School of Teacher Education and the Family Studies departments, as well as the Melba S. Lehrer Children’s School and Charter Academy and Charter Kindergarten, essentially a school within a school. The children’s school contained within the building presents its own needs for a sense of separate identity and requirements to control access to the facility and managing circulation within it.
GSBS Architects in Salt Lake City designed the renovation, which includes rooftop solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling, and Okland Construction built the project.
From the southeast corner, you can appreciate the volume of glass for introducing daylight into the interior. The main entrance faces a broad pedestrian corridor that leads to the union and student services buildings. At the eastern side you can see the entrance to the children’s school. This entrance is used only for the children’s school and has its own security.
From the opposite northwest corner, you can see how the two lower floors along the north containing the children’s school have a different scale and design aesthetic. A playground runs along the north side within the fence. The interplay between the children’s school and the university classrooms provide learning opportunities for students training to be teachers, such as the observation areas included in the children’s classroom spaces.
The outdoor play space allows the children many ways to enjoy it including the curving perimeter sidewalk, grass expanses, play equipment, and a natural area within a shady copse of trees.
This children’s school classroom access and check-in desk is from the interior corridor. Note how the dark blue ceiling color seemingly compresses and lowers the scale and varying wall colors differentiate the doors to classrooms to help cue wayfinding.
In the kindergarten room, a sliding glass door leads to the outdoor play area. I had to chuckle at how normally sized the furniture and sink look in the photo. I can assure you they are all undersized but done so consistently there isn’t anything in the photo to cue you to a standard size. It must feel perfect for a kindergartener!
Now it’s time to move into the University student area. This entry corridor is opposite the south door, which is street-level on this side and the second level of the building. Down the corridor on the left is the entrance to the fabrication lab, which contains tools and resources for creating lesson and classroom materials.
One objective in the update was more study areas and spaces for student collaboration.
On the third floor there are acoustically baffled circular spaces for curling up and reading and tables for working together. In the background you can see a classroom. A faculty member stopped to talk and said that he had worked decades in the former building and that the transformation and amount of light everywhere is a mind-boggling difference.
Administrative functions are on this floor, and prior to classes starting there was a steady stream of students going into the department offices.
This conference room is adjacent to the department’s executive offices.
The ceiling is open along the central spine to the levels above, allowing the natural light to filter down.
Lounge seating fills the broad corridor outside a series of large lecture halls.
On an upper floor, this is a favorite classroom because of the views.
It’s a funny thing at this time of life but seeing these facilities and meeting the faculty and staff makes me a little envious of those who are going back to school. It seems the older I get the more I realize what I don’t know and a chance to learn seems pretty darn appealing. For those lucky to be going to WSU this fall, welcome back!
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