Jessica Corbett / Third Year

November 5th, 2010

Summer 2009 / Landscape Studio / Professor Michael Macphail

If you are going to completely recreate nature through landscape design why not recreate a nature that allows for human inhabitance through architecture? My design is a K-4 elementary school located in the park alongside Jamaica Pond, designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead. I have great respect for his work making it a challenge to design a building that could exist in his park. As you approach the school from the street you only see a small building, but as you move around to the back the school spills down the hillside and creates a small courtyard for children to play in. The school sits into the hillside and incorporates an exterior ramp system for the public to still meander down the hill as intended. It has a direct connection to the main park features, the swale it sits into, open field, a grove of trees, the main roadway and a spectacular view of Jamaica Pond. It is also nestled into the pathways and existing stairs on the site. I intended the school to have a simple design for the minds of children, the functional quality of the hillside as well as an elegant appeal.