The Westinghouse Arts Academy, a private preparatory academy for the arts with a focus on visual art, theater, and dance purchased a vacated 1928 high school facility to accommodate their growing enrollment. Phase 1 of the multi-year, multi-year, multi-phase project consisted of gut-renovation of a portion of the facility to provide new instructional spaces, studios for the visual arts, dance and performance spaces.

In keeping with the academy’s self-directed, team-based learning curriculum, the educational environment was carefully designed to accommodate group-based work in an unstructured learning environment that encourages self-exploration, creativity, and chance encounter. The rawness of existing structural components was exposed and juxtaposed against architectural interventions that utilize bold colors as elements in an otherwise neutral space. An emphasis was placed on the flexibility of spaces that can at once serve as studio, gallery, or performance. 

The initial phase of construction created core areas for the high school level charter program. A “Commons” area features a variety of casual seating arrangements for social and small group study and learning activities. It supports and connects adjacent spaces, including a media center, large group instruction space, and the cafeteria servery.  The first phase of design and construction also provided a dance studio and music lab and refreshed the building’s classrooms.

The balance of the building will be renovated in future design and construction phases.