J. W. Mitchell High School New Port Richey, Florida

Learning Communities

Learning Communities

Color Entry Detail

Color Entry Detail

Typical Entrance

Typical Entrance

General View

General View

Overall View

Overall View

Student Walkway

Student Walkway

Classroom Art

Classroom Art

Color Wayfinding

Color Wayfinding

Courtyard Model View

Courtyard Model View

Walkway Model View

Walkway Model View

Athletic Site Plan

Athletic Site Plan

Weight Training

Weight Training

Client: Pasco County School District

Location: 2323 Little Road

Site: 26 vacant acres with some wetlands adjacent to the Seven Springs Middle School in the Trinity-Seven Springs region of Pasco County.

Program Challenge: To design a school building that facilitated “learning communities” rather than a traditional layout dictated by classroom type. The district was also tied to a strict budget and interested in a highly cost effective school house.

Solution: Rowe Architects with joint venture partner Rick Rados Architects, based its design process around the construction techniques used at RAI-designed Benito Middle School in Hillsborough County. Those strategies proved to be highly cost effective, which made them a good match for the J.W. Mitchell High School project and the administration’s desire to keep construction costs lower than the state’s average per student station.

Within those constraints in place, the designers moved forward with a plan for multiple one-story buildings that provided ample space for the five learning communities called for in the school’s curriculum. These learning communities – based on the vocational themes of health care, business finance/information management, engineering/technical science, arts, communica¬tion and environmental and natural sciences – are located in their own buildings with classroom space for core disciplines such as math and language arts, as well as additional spaces for gathering and specialized instruction. All five wings, with a total of 1,899 student stations, share a centralized gymnasium, cafeteria, media center, and administration suite.

During the project’s second phase, a football/soccer stadium and competition baseball and softball fields with bleachers, concession stand, locker and training rooms, coaches’ offices, restrooms and other facilities were added to the building’s exterior playfields area.