UC Irvine Journal for Learning through the Arts Title Can Architects Help Transform Public Education? What the Sarasota County Civic School Building Program (1955-1960) Teaches Us Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1479d3wp Journal Journal for Learning through the Arts, 9(1) Author Paley, Nicholas B. Publication Date 2013 DOI 10.21977/D9912643 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Can Architects Help Transform Public Education? What the Sarasota County School Building Program (1955-1960) Teaches Us Author: Nicholas Paley Graduate School of Education George Washington University Washington, DC 20052
[email protected] Word Count: 10,270 Abstract: The Sarasota County School Building Program (1955-1960) is revisited through a detailed examination of how architects and educators collaborated to design an innovative group of public schools that provided opportunities for the transformation of learning space. This multi-dimensioned examination is grounded in a historical contextualization of the school building program, in visual and discursive archival analysis related to three of the schools considered especially notable, and in the integration of contemporary voices of some of the teachers, students, and educational employees who worked in these schools. A concluding section discusses four key lessons of this artistic-educational collaboration that might be fruitful for educators to ponder as they seek to create the kinds of community-based learning environments that optimize students’ educational experiences. Introduction From 1955-1960, one of the most remarkable public school building programs in the history of American education took place in Sarasota, Florida. In less than a decade, projects for nine new elementary and secondary schools or additions were commissioned, designed, and constructed --and almost immediately--were being acclaimed as some of the most exciting and varied new schools being built anywhere.