Innovative Architecture for Innovative Education

Deseret Peak High School is the second school in the state designed with the flexibility required to support future learning models. This design was a result of a hands-on collaborative planning process with involvement from Tooele County School District administrators, staff, faculty, students, and the VCBO architectural team. Utilizing a series of interactive workshops with the stakeholders, key design ideas including different size classrooms, flexible learning spaces, collaborative learning suites with maker space labs, and teacher office suites were developed.

With a focus on increased efficiency and overall project costs, the Tooele County School Board challenged VCBO to hit a utilization factor of 95% in the new high school prototype. VCBO achieved this goal by moving teachers from their classrooms and into teacher office suites designed to provide teachers with all of the amenities necessary for their continued success. Another key aspect to achieving this goal was to create three learning studio types of varying sizes. Another key design element was the safety of students and staff. Each compartmentalized learning suite is created to optimize daylight, transparency, and safety. The resultant design of the new high school is safe, energy-efficient, supportive of current and future learning models, and continues the goals of the District to enhance collaborative learning.