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Unique National Projects

By Franklin Hill Ph.D

The following projects represent a brief summary of unique learning spaces developed by Dr. Franklin Hill The following projects represent a brief summary of the breadth of experiences provided by Dr. Franklin Hill. Often, he is a direct consultant to a school district, providing objective opinions about its needs or reviewing designs of architectural teams.
Dr. Hill also consults directly to design teams. Since he is an educational expert with planning credentials, the architectural firm of record has maximum opportunity to use their in-house creativity without conflict. Many planning firms are also designers themselves, and conflicts have been known to arise regarding design solutions and authorship of those ideas.
  • Dr. Hill was the educational planning consultant to the district and played a strategic role in convincing the school board and community of the benefits of a district-wide master plan. Dr. Hill became a consultant to UNICOM and BDLL Architects. In this regard Hill provided the following services:

  • Master Planning presentations to the community – over 500 attendees
  • Standards and size determination
  • Future Trends presentations
  • Staff workshops to identify K-12 need
  • Application of future trends and standards to prototypical schools
  • Workshop with designers and district to develop options for implementation.
  • Coordination with Career Technology facilities
  • He is helpful with regards to the media, interviews on the radio, and considering issues of a political or marketing nature as the Master Plan develops.
The Lovell community had been waiting many years for state funding for a new replacement high school. Declining enrollments and limited state funding placed this project lower and lower on the state priority list. Franklin Hill & Associates was commissioned to explore options including renovation of the existing facility. After careful analysis with staff, administration, and community, the Hill Master Plan solution proved to provide all the educational expectations of a “school of the future” within the existing building.
The solution included:
  • Small learning communities
  • Collegiate resource spaces
  • Advanced science laboratories
  • Integrated technology education and career training, and an
  • Expanded performing arts area
Most importantly, the solution was at a substantial savings in construction cost. Thus, this project was funded 10 years earlier, and is now under design and construction in the district. This project demonstrated the importance of understanding and applying appropriate future trends in learning to existing buildings in a manner that reduces total project cost.
Numerous articles have been published about this project.
Franklin Hill & Associates was commissioned to analyze K-12 education in the Fremont School District in Wyoming. The focus was on the need for and solution to a new replacement high school. Declining enrollments and a low priority on the state funding schedule was delaying the new construction option. Dr. Hill analyzed the entire K-12 program, utilization in other district facilities, and future enrollment trends. Hill applied forward thinking district practices with his understanding of future trends to propose a very successful K-12 solution within an existing under utilized facility.
The resulting solution was a substantial cost savings to the district and state facilities commission. It also integrated curricula across a K-12 continuum, saved on staff/administration costs, and reduced annual maintenance expenses. The final solution was fully adopted by the School Facilities Commission (SFC), funded within an earlier funding cycle, and is now under design many years earlier than originally expected.
The Hill solution also incorporated ideas to coordinate the facility solutions with community compatible ideas under consideration within the regional economic development plan. Thus, the solution was a benefit to education, the district, state funding, and local commercial development. A WIN, WIN, WIN solution.
Enloe High School is a 2300 student school serving grades 9-12. It was identified as the “Magnet High School of America” and has received numerous supportive educational awards for achievement. Dr. Hill was the educational futurist and facility planner for this renovation and remodeling project. His goal was to raise the bar for educational achievement beyond the current national standard.He provided the site master plan and educational program specifications for design that lead to advancements in:
  • Shared use with the Wake County Medical Center
  • Creation of the “Learning Atrium” for integration of curriculum and technology
The final solution was substantially below the original budget because of FH&A creative use of space, accurate size programming, and understanding of the educational curriculum and schedule.
Total building size was approximately 270,000 GSF. BJAC Architects – Raleigh, North Carolina http://schooldesigns.com/Project-Details.aspx?Project_ID=3305
This unique 2500-student high school located outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada combined the nationally recognized Jericho Provincial School for the Deaf into the new construction of Burnaby South Secondary School. Dr. Hill provided all the pre-architectural analysis of deaf student needs for inclusion in the comprehensive 9-12 grade design solution. Special involvement of IBM of Canada and BC Telephone Company allowed for advanced analysis of voice recognition software, communications technology, distance learning, and other advanced instrumentation in the sciences.
Bingham Hill Architects, Vancouver, Canada
  • This 3000-student high school was one of the largest comprehensive high schools built in recent years. Franklin Hill & Associates provided a variety of educational planning services.
  • Advanced lecture/laboratory science laboratories
  • Integrated technology educational programs with science/math
  • Alternative vocational program spaces
  • Special needs classrooms
  • Value Engineering to maximize program size and budget
Hill provided plan review throughout the design process to further confirm the educational implications of design solutions.
The Bolingbrook High School has won numerous design and energy conversation awards as well as a Silver Certified GREEN school.
Wight and Company, Architects
The Disney Development Company developed the Celebration “city of the future” outside of Orlando, Florida. It was intended to reflect the complete integration of community development, future trends to include housing, parks, medical facilities and schools. Dr. Hill was referred to by the staff as the “imaginer” for the development of the school of the future to complement this forward-thinking community. Uniquely designed as a K-12 facility, it reflected a complete restructuring of educational thinking throughout the spectrum of learning. It became the basis for what later became “small learning communities” as a method to make education more personalized and student-centered. Dr. Hill worked with numerous national experts including, but not limited to:
  • Howard Gardner, Harvard University
  • Robert Slavins, Johns Hopkins University
  • Robert Johnson, University of Minnesota
  • Bill Glasser, Author - Quality Schools
  • State of Florida, League of Teachers (100 total)
The total planning process challenged traditional thinking on community development, educational delivery, and size and distribution of educational design. In the end, the Disney school of the future was smaller and less expensive than traditional Florida schools of the time.

And Many More:

Click here for a copy of all of our past projects.