Global School for Arts, Technology & Environmental Sustainability
Tampa Area, Florida
Copyright © 2021 – Equity Schools, Inc
A successful K-8 charter, with environmental and project-based learning themes, needed help expanding their facilities and program. Our solution in this case utilizes “Talkoot” (community building) combined with student-led design, natural and environmentally sensitive construction, and phasing the new buildings to make the campus a “living laboratory.”
Goals
Add a high school on a second, larger campus.
Challenges
New campus had an estimated cost of $65 million, but the school funding could only support $10 million and they had no opportunity for a tax referendum or fund raising.
Results
This solution involves a new 70-acre campus with all desired uses and amenities, to be designed and built in phases and including some uses that generate supplemental revenues, all within the school’s $10 million capital budget limit. The school encountered zoning obstacles (due to wetland protections) and ultimately decided not to add a high school or new campus. The Nonlinear strategies we developed, however, remain viable and could be applied to other situations.
