PROJECT DETAILS
LOCATION : Galesburg, Illinois
MARKET : Education
AREA : 72,000 SQ FT
Galesburg Community Unit School District 205
The new two-story elementary school accommodates up to 600 students, including 50 in special education, and features 27 full-sized classrooms, a dedicated art room, music room & stage, administration offices, media resource center (library), cafeteria, and a new gymnasium. It also houses the entire school district's Information Technology department and fiber-optic system connecting all the buildings in the school district. Its 18 core classrooms are designed for an average of 25 students and are equipped with the latest technology including individual wireless access points, 70" flat panel touch screen monitors wirelessly tied to teacher and student devices, as well as a charging nook where student devices can be charged and uploaded with universal software simultaneously from a local or remote location in the district.
The learning environment is carefully designed to maximize student concentration and performance. All occupied rooms in the new school are provided with generous natural daylight and premium screening systems for glare control that all work together in conjunction with the latest LED light fixture controls. These automatically regulate how bright the LED light fixtures in the classrooms illuminate to provide additional task lighting. In areas with rooms adjacent to non-educational uses, acoustically sealed doors and ceiling systems (above and beyond traditional lay-in ceilings) were installed, including specially engineered acoustical hangers to avoid noise and vibration. This far exceeds recommended noise cancellation levels. The Media Resource Center (library) is equipped to accept various media devices, a projection screen, and monitors. It is designed to handle several classes browsing through the 13,000 volumes or sitting together in a lecture area, as well as spaces for individual study.
Silas Willard Elementary School received a 2017 "Outstanding Project" award from Learning by Design.
