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School Bond Planning Starts Before the Election
School bonds are often discussed in terms of dollars, tax rates, square footage, and project lists. Those things matter, but in our experience they are not usually where successful bond planning begins. A successful school bond starts with a clear, believable plan for the future of the district. In talking with community members around Central ...
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Planning For Future Growth: Build It Or Not, They’ll Likely Come
Many architects and educational planners focus attention in their planning processes on current needs and the status quo. “What changes are essential to meet our needs?” “What will our enrollment numbers be in 5 years?” Both of these are good questions, but they should be just the beginning of planning. New buildings are a long-term investment. They ...
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School Safety: Lessons Learned
In a perfect world, schools are places where teachers can focus on educating young minds and students can focus on learning, unbothered by external threats or concerns. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. The horrific tragedy that took place in Parkland Florida is just the most recent in a long line of terrible ...
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May I Elaborate…
Late last year, I was interviewed by Construction News Magazine to express my views on changes in the construction industry over the years. During that interview, I was asked about emerging trends in architecture. As I reflected on that question, I thought about all the projects we have completed and how they have evolved over the years. ...
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This Old School: Renovate Or Rebuild
The decision to renovate or build new is a complex one. There are many ways to analyze the topic based on budgets, finances, student needs and even the emotional connection between the community and the building, all can be equally important. There is no one solution that will be right for everyone, but when you ...
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To Build Up Or To Build Out, Act 2: The Lowdown On Building Up
In the November Blog, we talked about many of the advantages of multi-story buildings. We looked at factors ranging from shorter travel distances to visual messages a multi-story building can send. For this article, we decided to view multi-story construction through a different lens and explore the reasons our clients choose to avoid multi-story buildings ...
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To Build Up Or To Build Out, Act 1: To Build Up
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of gravity, or to engineer against it and by opposing build up? Finding land to build on is becoming harder to do as land is becoming scarce in many communities and school districts. Communities are developing a growing interest in green spaces and ...
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A Game Of Inches: Furniture And Building Design
With every district a few weeks into Friday Nights Lights, I started thinking about ‘Close Calls’ we’ve had in designing schools. I’ve been on many projects over the years that have seen the selection of furniture pushed off until well into construction. On one particular project — not naming any names — we were designing around ...
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Instructional Spaces: Class Size Matters
Questions about class size? Many people discuss this topic in reference to the number of students enrolled in each class, and they are right. But, class sizes also refer to the size of the space designated for students. Have you ever wondered how the size of a classroom is determined? Does the size of the ...
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Constructionnews.net Profile On Antonio Naylor
ConstructionNews.net ran a profile of our very own Antonio Naylor a few months ago. Reliance Architecture is reflective of our desire to be dependable and trustworthy in our service. Our projects cover a wide variety of size and types of projects from educational to public facilities, with about 40 clients, including working with many clients ...
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"Antonio listened to our concerns and effectively captured our vision into the design."
Delores Warnell
Frm. Superintendent, Bloomington ISD
