Thursday, November 13, 2008

Luis DaSilva - The Physical Analysis of the Gardner Pilot Elementary School, Allston, MA.

The image above is a top view image of the Gardner Pilot Elementary School in Allston, MA. In this project my goal is to do a site analysis, concept and a final design. In my analysis, my objectives are to study the physical aspects of the area, including the existing materials as well their present condition. This image helped me to have a more visual opinion about the site providing me a more refined detail amout the open space and dimensions between the building and the playground area.

In the three prospective drawings above, shows the detail information about the existing materials as well their condition and location in the site, such as; fences, trees, asphalt pavement and dimensions. In these drawings I wanted to be able to understand the existing physical condition of materials and the relationship between the space around the building.

In the three side view prospective drawings above, I wanted to show the type of existing materials in the front entrance of the building such as fences, walls, shrubs, trees, playground material as well the different types of pavement at the front entrance of the school.

In the site plan above, my goal was to show the dimensions and existing trees and around the playground as well to show all the entrances and exits of the school. The idea was to be more familiar with the space around the building and to get more information about the existing location of playground areas and parking lots.

Garnder Academy- Julie

This page is showing the time line for a normal school day. There is a morning and afterschool program that kids have the option to attend. There is also two shifts for lunch/recess. These are indicated bu the red and orange boxes. The second chart shows the grant that is given to each school when its Pilot status is aproved. Each little green person represents $10,000.
This sheet shows various pie charts regarding the students at Gardner Pilot Academy. I tried to use colors that are opposite on the color wheel to make the charts very bold. The only exception to this is the second chart showing the male and female ratio. I chose to choose the traditional colors blue and pink to represent the boys and girls. I also gave the girl a little skirt (just for clarity) :-)





On this page I am showing the Student ethnicity as well as the student population by grade. I tried to use bright and bold colors attractive to children. I also tried to use primary colors at first as these are the colors children learn in elemetary school, red orange yellow green blue. I ended up changing indigo and violet slightly to make the chart more readable. The color red indicates the highest percentage on these two charts. If you follow the colors in order (red orange yellow etc.) they will decrease in percentage.

I felt the quote at the top of this page really sums up what a pilot school is about. In general, pilot schools seem to be a great new thing. They really promote alternative ways of learning .They not only focus on the students success, but the families of those students as well. They have programs to help families with things like insurance and immigration. They also plan to host college classes as they are partnered with many of the surrounding universities.

Statistics of Allston area T Duffy

Here is the data for Income. I added the percentage chart to make it easier to see that Allston has similar statistics as Boston in regard to Income, and that Boston has a higher level of income than Mass and US statistics.





Here is the population statistics for our area. Interestingly, the majority of the population, according to BRA data, is non hispanic, but with moderate levels of spanish speaking citizens. 

Also, the majority of the population is in the child bearing years.



Here is the Land Use chart. Note that there are virtually no open space areas near our site, and the one closest is more playing fields than playground, and located across a moderately busy motor vehicle route (weatern Avenue)

Also note that Harvard owns most of the property surrounding this residential area.

Most of the housing is 2 or 3 family.

There are a few lots that have no structure on them abutting the site.



Here are the main transportation routes in the Allston area. it is interesting to note that the area around our site does not have any major routes abutting it, but it is surrounded by major routes of transportation.






i just wanted to point out that if you go on google maps and hit street view on the school address you can pan almost completely around the schoolyard from eye level...i'll bet you guys knew. the video about the designs for children were very interesting, inspiring, especially the one that exited only outdoors and had a lagoon on the premise!

Gila: upload your material to the web!!!!

as we spoke, your site analysis is a common work, which means that the other students NEED to use your work in their concept idea and design.
So, Please upload your material to the forum, and write some works about it in case someone doesn't remember, and try to do it before Saturday.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Gila- new links

hello,
I added the presentation from yesterday to the links on the right side.
here are some links that might be interesting for you-
websites of the firms that designed the projects we saw-
Levin-Monsigny Landscape Architects (Open space Kindergarten)
Stig L. Andersson Landscape Architects (crazy elementary school)
Kijo Rokkaku (Oasis in the historical trail)

Jean Piaget- the first person who talked about children cognitive development

Playground safety guidelines

it was great to see your works yesterday,
Gila




Monday, November 3, 2008

Gardner School pictures and North Allston- Brighton Picture map

Hello all, I wanted to share with you the picture map that I had mad previously for some professional work. The link is below, you can view the pictures in a web-browser or on in google earth. http://picasaweb.google.com/ddelongchamp/NorthAllston/photo#map

Share resources with your classmates if you find something interesting or peculiar about our project at the Gardner Academy.

-Dan

I will post the CAD drawings as soon as I am able to so please continue to check back for the link.