Located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the Duke Ellington School of the Arts is a high school that specializes in arts education.Founded in 1974 by Peggy Cooper Cafritz and Mike Malone, the school occupies a building originally built in 1898 as Western High School. The District of Columbia Public Schools recently embarked on a multi-million dollar renovation project to modernize the facility and expand from 171,000 to 271,000 sq. ft. The project included the renovation and addition of classrooms, dance and art studios, common areas, a media center and a 300-seat performance hall.While the primary goal of construction was to add new spaces and modernize the entire buildin

Gone are standardized boxy structures, and instead spaces are filled with natural light that promote learning in a healthy environment. A new campus, Wichita High School Southeast, replaces a 1950s structure and meets the community’s growing population needs with current design practices. The exterior showcases the school’s pride and adoption of cost-effective, durable materials. “This was the first all new, comprehensive high school for the district since the 1970s, so they wanted something permanent, but modern,” say Malcolm Watkins AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, vice president of Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey in Wichita, Kansas.

A minimalist stair track rail system at the Hope College Jim and Martie Bultman Student Center gives the open concept space a sense of lightness and freedom—ideal for fostering community among students and campus organizations. Provide safety needed for stair systems without taking away from the elegance of the space. The center includes a large multipurpose room with adjacent patio, a lounge with fireplaces, as well as, meeting areas and a coffee shop.

So, for all the talk of color tuning, does it exist? It does, but sometimes you have to go far afield, say Denmark, and the Herstedlund Primary School. There, after the bell rings, fourth-year students take their seats for the first lesson—not so different than schools around the world. However, when teachers in these classrooms flick the switch, a very different experience follows. Light, more like daylight, floods the classroom, creating a more pleasant atmosphere. Thanks to Zumtobel’s Active Lighting system, teachers have a choice of four pre-programmed lighting “moods,” in line with the precepts of human-centric lighting. In this case, dimmable, and color-tunable