Educational philosophy has evolved over the past 50-60 years, when it comes to how grades in the fifth through 12th grade range should be grouped. Where junior highs, with seventh through eighth or ninth grades under one roof once were the norm, now the middle school model, bringing together students in the fifth or sixth grades through eighth grade, dominate.
 
A newer approach combines middle or junior highs on the same campus as the high schools they feed into, but with separate entrances and other physical boundaries. A recent expansion of a semi-rural Illinois campus is designed to fit these guidelines. To ensure the school maintained a single identity across its varied facilities, designers opted for a bold signage system of painted perforated corrugated metal that also adds brilliant color to an otherwise neutral exterior palette.
 
The Williamsville-Sherman Community Unit School District No. 15 serves students from its namesake villages on the outskirts of Springfield, Ill. With only approximately 1,450 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, consolidating more grades on a single campus likely makes some financial sense. But, the approach has roots in educational theory, as well. Some research has shown students create more meaningful relationships with teachers the longer they’ve known them. Academic performance also may benefit when at-risk students are assisted more consistently through the years – and when younger students get more exposure to those from higher grades as role models.

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Williamsville-Sherman already had proven success combining seventh and eighth grades with their existing junior-senior campus. The recent expansion added fifth and sixth grades to the existing junior high facility, adding a new wing for fifth graders. New amenities, like a multi-use theater and band and choral areas – along with athletic upgrades – also were included. Junior and senior athletic programs have different team names – younger-grade athletes are the Bee Bees, while the older students compete as the Bullets – but they use the same purple and yellow colors.

So, designers with Decatur, Ill.-based BLDD Architects incorporated these colors as part of the campus-wide identity program. Large, perforated screens of corrugated aluminum are painted with abstracted purple and yellow stripes and installed over glass curtainwall windows at the building’s corners. These dynamic splashes also provide an eye-catching contrast to the neutral concrete and masonry materials that dominate the building’s façades.  

The building team, which also included installers with CAD Construction, Tremont, Ill, specified Petersen to supply the screen – the architects had had success with previous screens using Petersen’s PAC-CLAD products. In all, 2,200 sq. ft. of PAC-CLAD 7.2 Perforated Corrugated panels were specified in the company’s Stone White finish, to which the bright school colors were applied. These panels are available in a nearly endless combination of hole sizes, spacing and open-space percentages to complement almost any design or need.