Peter B. Davidsen Middle School Tampa, Florida
Client: Hillsborough County School District
Location: 10501 Montague Street
Site: A 26 acre tract with a very subtle slope in topography towards the southeast. The only existing landscape on the site is a wetlands conservation area located in the northwest corner of the site. The site is bounded on the south and west by homes and on the north and east by undeveloped parcels.
Program Challenge: The program called for a 130,000 square foot prototypical middle school to accommodate 1,511 students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades within a compact design. In addition to general education classrooms, the school also needed special purpose instructional spaces including an art studio, music suite and physical education facility with exterior play courts, play fields and running track. The program also provided for the needs of exceptional students and includes vocational education spaces for business technology, family consumer sciences, and communications technology. Both a limited budget and timeline required extra consideration. Additionally, because the site is in a rapidly growing bedroom community that at the time of project conception lacked architecturally significant public buildings, the architects wanted to create a school that would set a precedent for future public and institutional buildings in the area.
Solution: Rowe Architects sited the school to take advantage of views of a nearby wetland conservation area. Building orientation is primarily east-west with desirable views from the classroom buildings to the north wetlands and to the south within the campus.
To ensure efficient use of space, RAI considered the project in terms of two simple, mutually defining elements; the massing (positive) and the circulation (negative). The primary and secondary circulation elements bring order to massing through separation, and at the same time act as a common thread tying the campus together. Once the massing and circulation elements were established, shifting was possible to allow for the development of public space.
Tilt-up concrete panels were used for the exterior envelope to help keep the project within budget.
The school’s design was awarded AIA Tampa Bay’s 2002 Merit Award for Architecture, AIA Florida’s 1999 Unbuilt Design Award, and AIA Florida’s 2001 Merit Award of Excellence.