Glens Falls City SD High School 21st-Century Learning & Science Classrooms

Glens Falls, New York

Glens Falls High School had a problem. Its long, narrow third-floor classrooms for physics, chemistry and earth sciences, were 60 years old with, in the district’s own words, sagging lab tables, flawed plumbing that often drenched students and corroded, rusty drains that backed up. An out-of-warranty roof leaked. Outdated cabling made it impossible to achieve high bandwidth. One of the two chem labs was only 914 square feet, too small for comfortable hands-on instruction.

Glens Falls residents voted to move $2.5 million from the district’s fund balance into a capital reserve fund to be able to access $7.5 million in hard-won state building aid to address infrastructure, configuration and technology issues at four of the district’s schools. To make the most of that budget, the High School had to keep its new science classrooms and offices, as well as prep and chemical storage rooms, within the existing science wing footprint.

Informed by teaching needs

Completed in the summer of 2014, Mosaic’s design was richly informed by listening to the needs of the teachers who would use the classrooms. The third floor wing was gutted straight through the roof. The use of “teaching walls” define laboratory and instructional spaces in the long classrooms, while larger tables are designed to serve as both lab tables and student desks. A new ceiling accommodates modern utilities and allows room for future technology infrastructure upgrades.

For more about projects in Glens Falls, see the Auditorium and Aquatic Center portfolio entry.