AIAGE Merit 2018
Career Technical Education Center
The Career Technical Education Center (CTEC) complex at Independence High School is an innovative facility dedicated to teaching career centered skills to high school and adult students in a corporate, technology-rich environment. It is intended to create a strong link between corporate partners, higher education and high school students.
The primary building is a 90,245 square foot, 2-story, structure designed to look and feel like a corporate office building. It will contain teaching and lab facilities for 15 unique career pathways, as diverse as nursing assistant, robotics, early childhood education, video productions, and mobile app design. The facility contains an approximately 250 seat Innovations Presentation Hall for large lectures and gatherings as well as an Innovations Research Center where students and corporate partners can interact, and research career possibilities.
Numerous conference and meeting rooms are included in the building to facilitate as much interaction and cooperation among students as possible. The facility is designed to be used by regular and web-based high school students during the school day and adult education in the evenings.
The secondary building, a single story 16,328 square foot Warehouse and Fire Science Building will house instructional classrooms and a student-run warehouse. This warehouse will supply the primary building with teaching materials, equipment and supplies on a just-in-time basis. Students will be able to gain real world experience in warehousing and logistic. Fire Science students will be able to work with real firefighting equipment both inside the facility and in the outdoor training areas.
Juror' Comments
This project appears to have a well-conceived plan that weaves together the many different educational pathways. The design also appears to also allow for many opportunities for student interaction and doing so in a playful way. We liked that the design appears to provide the look and feel of a modern 21st Century learning environment. We also liked the expressive and educational use of the exposed structures.
