Valle Vista Elementary School

Originally built in 1952, Valle Vista Elementary School is located in the South Valley of Albuquerque, a semi-rural community with grazing fields directly to the south of the campus. Our challenge was to construct an addition to the school which needed to increase it’s capacity. Our design's most significant feature is the “Learning Wall.”

The Learning Wall creates an unheated “L” shaped exterior corridor serving the North and East entries to the classrooms and restrooms. The weather-protected roof is punctuated with skylights, bringing natural daylight into the space and providing borrowed light to the classrooms.

The Learning Wall is built of concrete, using the low cost “tilt-up” construction technique common to warehouse facilities seen in the Albuquerque commercial zones. Cast into the Learning Wall are geometric openings with educational program importance.

The openings are keyed into Valle Vista's curricula. Symbols, shapes, color and texture seen in the study of Music, Art, the Sciences, Math, History, and Geography provide a starting point for further research, study, and experimentation on the campus grounds and in the classrooms.

Notches in the Learning Wall and the patterns cast from them are reminiscent of the Chaco Canyon “Sun Dagger”, Native American science and culture, modern astronomy, growing cycles, etc. The Fibonacci Series is seen in the common sunflower. Its image is a key to studies in Mathematics, Art, and Biology. Using current texts, media, and the internet, teachers and students will use and expand the Learning Wall’s importance.