Midvale Middle School

Midvale, Utah

Firm

VCBO Architecture

Client

Canyons School District

Area

205,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$39,250,000

Completion Date

06/2017

Design team: Jeanne Jackson, FAIA, LEED ap (Principal in Charge); Brian Peterson, Assoc. AIA (Project Manager)

Complementing the neighborhood aesthetic, Midvale is a replacement school that takes cues from the brick houses and art-deco architecture of the historic town. The students are split into sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade-level specific academic houses of two levels each. These houses are aligned along a “Main Street,” reminiscent of the houses in the town. Inspiring “outdoor classroom” courtyards designed between the houses have easy access from the interior.
The classroom blocks maximize daylighting within classrooms, enhance collaboration and enable learning communities. Classrooms have large transparent sectional doors that enable students to flow in and out of the collaboration space in an infinite amount of configurations, while maintaining supervision within the spaces. The school was designed around the concept of “strength in unity”—the idea of many small unique things joining together to make one beautiful, unified whole.
The building has a 3,000-square-foot multipurpose room for anything from a community meeting to a small concert or an impromptu dodge ball game. The multilevel commons and cafeteria open to an outdoor student plaza.