Elementary School Design
Haymount New Town
Caroline County, VA

Haymount is a proposed new town along the Rappahannock River 50 miles south of Washington, D.C. The best practices of new urbanism, environmental design, and landscape ecology will be incorporated into plans for the mixed-use riverfront development, which will be the largest in the county. It will have single, attached, and multi-family dwellings, commercial, and retail space. An elementary school for 500 children, required by the state, will be one of the first construction projects.

ASG is in the preliminary conceptual phase of designing the school, and in spring 2004 we conducted a two-day planning session in conjunction with Leon Krier. The Luxemburg architect and urbanist is credited with founding the “New Urbanist” movement that plans communities based on the needs of citizens rather than building forms.

The school's functions – learning, singing, creating, eating, resting, nurturing, and playing – provide opportunities for multiple kinds of spaces. The leading idea during the meetings was creation of a type of urban settlement rather than a single building. The school could include a system of small courtyards and arcades linking its buildings.

The gym, recreation fields, and library could be shared with the community after school hours, and the adjacent church could use the hardscaped square for parking or neighborhood events.