Angarano and Williams Present at A4LE Northeast Region Conference

Susanne Angarano, Principal / Senior Interior Designer, and Nicholas Williams, Principal & Director, Mid-Atlantic Office, co-presented “Breaking Down the Walls to the 21st Century: A Holistic Approach to Progressive Facilities” at the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) Northeast Regional Conference on Friday, April 28, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

K12 and Higher Education institutions frequently grapple with how to deal with aging facilities that no longer reflect current pedagogical approaches and are in conflict with broader institutional goals regarding sustainability. An opportunity exists to liberate the end-users from the limitations that past modes instruction and their architectural implementations impose on students and faculty while also improving access to daylight and views and aligning with their institutions’ values of a more sustainable future.

This session will share two projects where a holistic approach was taken to facility modernization that resulted in a total recladding of the existing facility along with a dramatic shift in how the interior learning environment has been reshaped to enhance the learning environment and reflect a move away from mid-century instructional models to reflect a more collaborative approach to learning.

They will explore the parallels between Binghamton University’s Science IV as well as Westhill Central School District (NY) High School, which both underwent dramatic transformations to bring an iconic community facility out of the mid-20th Century to be positioned for the future, through high-performance approaches to envelope retrofits and substantial stakeholder involvement in crafting and defining the learning environments. The session will also speak to how post-occupancy evaluations of phased projects allow for a data-driven approach to future phases that shows the value of continual refinement from engagement with end-users.