Indianapolis Metropolitan Career Academy
Indianapolis Metropolitan Career Academy:
The project was the renovation of an existing 2-story wing housing the Goodwill facility maintenance shop and miscellaneous office and classroom space. The wing was transformed into two 60-student schools of 8,000 square feet each. The schools are based on the “small school” model developed by the Big Picture Company. They are college preparatory, charter schools which utilize curricula personally designed around the students’ interests, and they employ internship work to encourage real-world problem solving.
The Commons Areas were designed as the “living rooms” of the schools. This is where the students come together for all-school meetings, to share meals and to relax and socialize. The walls of the Commons Areas are faceted and include built-in pedestals. These walls and pedestals will be display space for the students’ work. The Advisories contain storefront window walls to open up the spaces and to provide shared daylight to the interior corridors. The floor patterns reflect both the structural column grid and the overhead soffits. The soffits were designed to create more intimate nooks with in the common space.
