Elementary School Lights Up, Lifts Off, with Kalwall
When you experience Odyssey Elementary School in Ogden, Utah, for the first time, it's clear that something is different. Maybe it's the futuristic look, or the lack of any parallel or square walls, or the 837-square-foot Kalwall Translucent Wall System that takes on an otherworldly yet welcoming glow at night. Perhaps it's the students leaving the school who appear to be disembarking from a NASA space shuttle.
The dramatic focal point of the building is a shuttle replica. Its nose pierces the front wall as if breaking the sound barrier upon reentry from orbit. The tail section emerges from the school's roof; the left wing serves as a canopy that forms a dramatic main entrance. But this faux, fiberglass space shuttle is more than just an architectural ornament. The shuttle, cockpit and fuselage, mission control room, centrifuge training chair, and space station make up the second-floor Astro Camp, the school's "crown jewel", says Dennic Cecchini, CEO of Salt Lake City's MHTN Architects.
The design of the science, math and aerospace magnet school won the project commission in a design competition. "The various rooms simulate space shuttle launches, missions and landings," Cecchini explains. "Students take on the roles of astronauts, mission specialists, and control room staff."
Serving a large number of high-risk, inner city children – 83% are minorities, 77% at or near the poverty level – the school's goal is to recommit to the neighborhood, offering students top-level educational opportunities and a world of endless possibilities. Still, this mock Kennedy Space Center, in an urban stretch of north central Utah known as the Wasatch Front, isn't just for Odyssey Elementary School students. "Thousands of children from across the Wasatch Front attend Astro Camp on field trips," adds Cecchini. "During the summer, residential camps are available and classrooms convert to dormitories."
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The space and science theme carries over into other design aspects of the two-story, 74,000-square-foot school. Like the Milky Way's spiral arms, both levels wrap around a serpentine "Main Street Corridor". There's a schematic of the solar system on the kindergarten commons floor; others sport geometric patterns. Lunar phases are seen in the ceiling, constellations on walls and windows.
But MHTN chose Kalwall for several very down-to-earth design reasons, beginning with the museum-quality, glare-free daylighting of Kalwall translucent panels. "By using Kalwall," says Cecchini, "we could bring controlled daylight deep into the second floor and still maintain the R-values required to meet the state energy code." Kalwall translucent panels also minimize solar gain and heat loss, cutting energy costs for air conditioning and heating, and the controlled daylight also reduces the need for artificial lighting. This offers the added advantage of creating more usable occupant space close to exterior walls. During the manufacturing process, standard 2-3/4" (70 mm) Kalwall sandwich panels can be infilled with various densities of specialized, translucent insulation. Architects and designers can achieve a thermal insulation value of up to R-20 (0.05 Btu/hr/ft²/°F = 0.3 W/m²K) and still cover expansive areas with translucent cladding or roofing.
Bringing daylight into any structure offers a number of benefits, including improved health and sense of well-being; in a school setting, studies have shown measurable improvement in students' behavior and test scores. There is even evidence to suggest that schoolchildren take greater pride in and care of a daylighted school, a feeling that tends to filter outward into the surrounding community as well. Kalwall is also shatterproof, vandal-resistant and self-cleaning: any outside grime simply washes off with rainfall, saving the Ogden City School District additional maintenance costs and thus preserving scarce education dollars.
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Then there is Kalwall's aesthetic adaptability to the project. It's safe to say that few elementary schools are also part space shuttle and Kalwall was equal to the challenge, offering a range of design options not found elsewhere. "Kalwall provides the Astro Camp with exactly the balance between light transmission and opaqueness our design team sought to complete the illusion of space travel," Cecchini explains. Matt Alder, of Kalwall distributor Alder Sales Corporation, agrees. "It was Kalwall's versatility, coupled with our commitment to detail, that made the connection to the shuttle possible. And at night, we were able to create the illusion that the shuttle was flying directly out of the background light generated by the Kalwall, all without obtrusive flashing or mullions."
Odyssey Elementary School has already won "2007 Best K-12 Education Project" recognition from Intermountain Contractor magazine; the design has also been submitted for three separate Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) awards. From day one, the facility has been the pride of the Wasatch Front. Students from the area – who never had a school they could call their own and were, instead, farmed out to four surrounding schools – now know that when it comes to education, the sky is, literally, the limit. During its official opening ceremonies, the structure inspired former astronaut and U.S. Senator Jake Garn to tell the students, "One of you may come back to this school someday and say what it was like to walk on Mars". Meanwhile, back on earth, Kalwall is working hard to make that dream come true, in ways no other building product can. Says Cecchini, "Kalwall has specific use capabilities that cannot be matched by other materials."
Odyssey Elementary School and Astro Camp
Architect: MHTN Architects
Kalwall Specifications
Thermally Broken Panel U-Value: 0.23 Btu/hr/ft²/°F = 1.3 W/m²K
NFRC System U-Value: 0.28 Btu/hr/ft²/°F = 1.7 W/m²K
Light Transmission: 20%
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient: 0.19
For more information, contact:
Bruce Keller
Kalwall Corporation 603-627-3861 (800-258-9777 N. America)
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