A good return on investment is at the top of any purchaser’s list of expectations. When that purchaser is using taxpayers’ money, it becomes all the more paramount.

Working with a $13-million budget approved by voters in the Festus (Mo.) R-VI School District, Kromm, Rikimaru & Johansen (KRJ), a St. Louis-based architectural firm that specializes in designing educational facilities, was asked to design a new Intermediate Center for the fast-growing community adjacent to existing structures for the Festus high school, middle school and elementary school.

The Intermediate Center, for children in the fifth through seventh grades, was designed through a joint effort of the firm and the school district to deliver education in a better package. With Festus being too small to realistically establish another elementary school, an expansion at the existing site seemed necessary. Yet, the district didn’t want the old school to become too big.

The firm was also challenged with another request. A special needs class taught by Dawniele Gardner-Wurtz encompasses students with learning disabilities and behavoral issues, as well as mentally handicapped pupils. Could the team, led by principal designer Young-Hie Kromm, meet the needs of the students, the desires of the school district and the hopes of the teachers, in one efficient design?

With a“logical” approach to the challenge, and with the firm’s long-held“love” for incorporating architectural themes endemic to a specific region, it seemed only natural to come up with one “L” of an idea to answer everyone’s needs — an L-shaped room.

“As a regular teacher, the classroom that I had wasn’t big enough,” says Gardner-Wurtz. “With the L-shaped room, however, I can see all sides of the room from where I put my desk. It’s set in a way that you can divide up the room. I have a teacher’s aide to be with one group of kids, and I can be with another. It’s easy to spread the kids out, too. I have 10 kids at the most at one time, but the kids with behavioral problems can be isolated. I can teach in the front of the room, an aide can be with a small group and maybe we can isolate a behavior-issue student in another area.”

The classroom, as designed, uses space efficiently. While classrooms often lack intimacy, an L-shaped room can be quite workable and enable the teacher to supervise three different sets of students from one location. The smaller side of the L is approximately 292 sq. ft., with the longer side about 445 sq. ft. Thus, a room configured at 737 sq. ft. can accommodate three separate clusters of students.

A carpeted area allows for quiet time and reading by one group of students; a table area is established for small group learning or discussions; and the third area, where the desks are located, is for more traditional teaching.

With a certain number of special education classes, the Festus school district administrators wanted something in the design for the Intermediate Center to be different. While meeting the goals of the client within space and budget constraints can be challenging, thinking outside the square box of conventional classrooms allows for creative solutions to conventional and long-standing teaching frustrations.

A traditional rectangular-shaped room may not always be possible or even desired. However, a facility limitation can become an asset if used creatively. Alternative instructional strategies, such as the multicategorical classroom at Festus, can actually thrive in irregularly shaped rooms.

Festus school district’s commitment to provide individualized and small group instruction is apparent in the philosophy of the school board, the principal and teachers, and the curriculum developed by the district for the students. By subdividing the room into instructional areas, the varying needs of all learners are met.

The room pattern at the Festus Inter-mediate Center allows the teacher to define the alcove area as a separate but connected part of the full classroom. Small group activities facilitated by a teacher’s aide, high school cadet teacher, parent volunteer or students themselves effectively occur while the teacher is lecturing in the main part of the room.

The L-shape of the room allows eye contact with everyone, while still providing a defined area for alternative instruction. Additionally, the irregular contour provides both a physical and possibly psychological definition to the room and to the instructional process that will allow the concept of small group instruction to succeed.

In the past, with small rooms,” says Gardner-Wurtz, “if you had students who were finished with their work and free to read, they were in the way. Now, they can play, build or read out loud to themselves, and I can pull the other group far enough away without bothering them. There are less distractions and interruptions.”

“Consistent with our firm’s philosophy,” says Young-Hie Kromm, “we researched existing area buildings and found columns of Doric proportions, and incorporated that element into the Intermediate Center’s exterior design. Columns at the front entryway, for example, include a slight inset of darker colors, producing a Doric feeling without incurring a cost penalty.”

People who live in the district and have financed the effort see it as an aesthetic triumph, inside and outside. And, as three semesters of teaching have demonstrated, it’s a practical success as well.