Thoroughgood is Getting a New Home!
Thoroughgood Elementary School, originally built in 1958, can no longer adequately house the required instructional programs and the facility is in need of replacement. Funded in the 2015/16 Capital Improvement Program, the replacement of TGOOD is now underway, with the architecture firm of VIA design architects leading a highly talented and enthusiastic design team and group of users, administrators, and stakeholders through the design process. We welcome you all to follow along with the process as we move forward towards a 2020 completion and move-in date.
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The Process
Long gone are the days of school administration dictating and prototyping a new school’s physical shape, content, and support needs to accommodate the way its students will learn. The new planning paradigm emerging recognizes that each student is unique and representational of the community from which he or she is integral and connected. Recognizing the importance of place, culture, values, and home grown inspirations lives at the core of the City of VA Beach’s School Planning facility development movement.
As their consultant, VIA’s overarching goal is to integrate sustainability into the school such that the culture, curriculum and overall learning experience benefits seamlessly from the design, shape, texture, and environmentally friendly good feeling we leave behind. The building is simply one big fat support space to this notion. It must perform as a back drop to the stage where the students are front and center, and the curtains, lighting, and rigging assist in directing the attention of the teachers to their students. Seeking proper foundational input from all that will potentially be affected by its presence is critical for the design team to originate a design parti and family of design principles. We start with lots of questions in search of the visceral and core idea of “Why is this important to them and what will define success?” We ultimately call this “WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE!” |
Project Schedule
Our design schedule begins with an engaging 'design-by-committee' approach with a series of building and site design workshops with stakeholders, users, neighbors, and design team members. Throughout the remainder of 2017, the design team will complete the design and construction documents, with anticipation of bidding the project in early 2018.
Your Design Team
Our design team GOALS STATEMENT for THOROUGHGOOD ELEMENTARY is:
“To provide a natural response to the future educational needs of its students and support needs of its leadership through demonstration with sustainability initiatives on all levels of design to inspire all who pass through this place.” The design team for the new Thoroughgood Elementary School has years of experience designing K-12 schools for Virginia Beach City Public Schools and includes the following members: |