Grafton Elementary
The new Grafton Elementary is located in a quite town at the convergence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. The new school of approximately 45,000 square feet sits atop the limestone bluffs that are along the riverfront.
Local residents wished to remember the river by using symbolic gestures to tug boats or lighthouses so common to the working river. Natural stone, once locally quarried, played a role in the design of the structure.
A great example of a community working together worked out inside the school. The community was in need of a library but did not have the resources to staff it. So the school library was designed with the library situated so it could serve both the public and the school, and could be staffed and opened to the public with access to the main entry and toilets, but closed off from the rest of the school after hours.
The pre-K through fifth grade school consists of 23 teaching stations, including the technology center next to the library, and special education rooms. Each classroom has a large amount of built-in casework to accommodate bookshelves, map and chart drawers, display shelving, and cabinets and storage cubbies. Lower age classrooms have a connecting passage and share pairs of single user toilets to allow more continuity of instructional time and encourage team teaching efforts.
Local residents wished to remember the river by using symbolic gestures to tug boats or lighthouses so common to the working river. Natural stone, once locally quarried, played a role in the design of the structure.
A great example of a community working together worked out inside the school. The community was in need of a library but did not have the resources to staff it. So the school library was designed with the library situated so it could serve both the public and the school, and could be staffed and opened to the public with access to the main entry and toilets, but closed off from the rest of the school after hours.
The pre-K through fifth grade school consists of 23 teaching stations, including the technology center next to the library, and special education rooms. Each classroom has a large amount of built-in casework to accommodate bookshelves, map and chart drawers, display shelving, and cabinets and storage cubbies. Lower age classrooms have a connecting passage and share pairs of single user toilets to allow more continuity of instructional time and encourage team teaching efforts.
