Ben Franklin High School Master Plan
Thorough end user engagement and site analysis reveals the unique, key aspect of the school’s culture.
Category
Education & Institutional
Location
New Orleans, LA
Size
310,000 SF
Year
2018
In partnership with VMDO Architects, Trapolin-Peer designed a Facilities Master Plan to help Benjamin Franklin High School create an actionable plan towards their future goals for growth. Using an intensive engagement process, the team analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the existing facilities, and multiple renovation and expansion recommendations were introduced. To engage the end users, Trapolin-Peer and VMDO gathered input from students, faculty and staff, parents, and alumni via targeted workshops, interviews, and surveys.
A site analysis revealed that the unique placement of the school within the University of New Orleans campus is a key aspect of the school’s culture. Two students from Benjamin Franklin High participated as interns for Preliminary Design Schemes. Their involvement in design charrettes helped the design team to imagine concepts for building additions and defined meaningful outdoor learning spaces.
With an understanding of creating environments for this type of interdisciplinary learning Trapolin-Peer and VMDO outlined potential phases of construction, executable over roughly a decade. Early phases describe the best use of existing properties and address immediate remediation needs, while subsequent plans and their timelines allow for population growth to a planned capacity of 1,200 students.