Butler Elementary School

Cottonwood Heights, Utah

Firm

VCBO Architecture

Client

Canyons School District

Area

89,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$17,050,000

Completion Date

08/2016

Design team:
Jeanne Jackson, FAIA, LEED ap (Principal-in-Charge); Alex Booth, AIA, LEED ap (Project Architect)

Butler Elementary, rebuilt on an occupied site, is designed as a set of small learning communities. Large airy classrooms surround intimate central collaboration spaces that provide students and teachers with a place for varied educational opportunities. Outside each classroom is a tutoring nook situated just beyond a large window facing the collaboration space—a “kitchen table” element—where project-based learning takes place. Inside the classroom, a window seat and large windows provide outstanding daylighting, complemented by variable-level multi-scene LED lighting.
The building is themed in accordance with its location, “The City Between the Canyons.” The exterior is sliced into distinct vertical elements to evoke canyons. The two exterior courtyards are named for nearby canyons, and highlight the different ways in which each canyon was created. Each teaching wing is named for a famous canyon in the United States.
The use of load-bearing, locally produced masonry and metal siding helped contribute to the school’s sustainable design goals. Mechanical systems use three-stage evaporative cooling and thermal displacement ventilation, another sustainable design element.