MNPS | Smith Springs Elementary School
Nashville, Tennessee
Project Facts
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Size: 92,200 SF
Market: Education
Completed: 2015
Services: Architecture, Interiors
Scope: New Elementary School
Certifications: LEED Silver
Smith Springs Elementary School is a 98,200 square foot 800-student building situated near Percy Priest Lake wildlife habitat and YMCA Camp Widjiwagan. The youth camp and public school system developed a unique program enabling students to participate in camp educational programs with access to the natural environment.
The building program features a multipurpose gymnasium, community room, resource center, kitchen, play area, and classrooms. Each classroom is equipped with smart technology teaching boards and wireless connectivity for student personal computers. The building exterior evokes a clean, modern look with massing designed to reduce the visual scale of the building.
Designed by the Gould Turner Group team to achieve LEED Silver Certification, the school incorporates locally sourced materials, lighting controls, high-efficiency windows, indigenous landscaping, and bio-swales for filtering groundwater. Clerestory windows at gathering locations provide abundant daylight.
To achieve continuity with the historically scenic area and to spark childrens’ imagination, nature is incorporated as a design feature by the use of material tones, patterns, and textures. Inlay metal leaf patterns within the casework and the acoustical ceiling cloud shapes correlate with the nature theme throughout the school.
EMC Engineers – Structural Engineer
I.C. Thomasson – MPE Engineers
Barge Cauthen – Civil Engineer
Hawkins Partners – Landscape Architects
Bell & Associates – Contractor
Outstanding Classroom Design, American School and University magazine, 2016
Colors were incorporated from the existing site. The purple accent floor tiles were derived from the surrounding wildflowers and the carpet in the library has the visual texture of tree bark.
Floor patterns were developed to assist children with wayfinding.
Provided creative solutions for the $1.0M value engineering exercise without compromising design or performance.
