Julian Elementary School

^{Classrooms | Community Room | Administrative Offices}

^{2 story | 30,000 SF | $5M | Phoenix | 2010}    

^{Located in South Phoenix, the Julian campus with the Roosevelt School District,  is rooted in the deep culture and history of the Roosevelt community. The site has seen its transformation from native desert, to Native American irrigation channels and agriculture, to early Japanese flower gardens and today’s suburban housing communities.  This was all possible because of the life the Gila River brought to the area.  The new design used the concept of the existing river of life used as circulation patterns on the site.  The new buildings are organized around existing community circulation patterns to the school.  As one enters the site along these reinforced pathways, they symbolically represent the irregularity, but all-important life-blood of the Gila River.  Once inside the campus, the patterns become more organized like the patterns seen in the agricultural past.  The school is separated by grade level, but cross-mentoring and community involvement is encouraged through the common community room, which houses the library and media center. Project completed while at Orcutt | Winslow.}