Morrison PreK-8 School serves as one of the Morrison community’s only civic buildings. It is a 550-core capacity facility constructed on 27 acres. The school’s core elements – administrative offices, cafeteria, library, and gymnasium – serve students housed in 31 classrooms.

The project concept was born out of the pragmatic notions of proper orientation, daylighting, and an insistence on “building the diagram”, resulting in a clear organization of plan and consequent clarity of wayfinding.

The primary circulation axis runs north-south, connecting the front entry of the building to the rear
entry and parking beyond. This primary axis essentially creates a line of demarcation between the core elements and the classroom wings, with the one exception being the overlaid transparent bar which houses the cafeteria, servery queuing, and library; this transparent bar, comprised of a series of parallel transparent walls, allows borrowed light deep into the middle of the building, while it spatially and structurally supersedes the corridor.

The school primarily consists of masonry bearing walls, concrete slabs, and open-web steel joists supporting metal roof decking. Roofs are low-slope gray TPO membrane on rigid insulation.

Exterior walls are clad in a dark brown-gray closure modular brick veneer, white cast stone veneer, and metal panel. Exterior windows are aluminum storefront with low-E insulated glazing units, while a translucent glazing system was utilized for the continuous clerestory in the gymnasium. The mechanical system, electrical systems, plumbing fixtures, and building envelope are energy efficient, designed to meet or exceed the requirements of the energy code.