LS3P’s design of Jackson Creek Elementary wins merit award
March 27, 2019
Photo credit Matt Silk
LS3P’s 21st century design for Richland School District Two’s Jackson Creek Elementary received a Merit Award from the Association for Learning Environments SC (A4LE SC) last week.
The school, constructed as a design/build project with Thompson Turner Construction, serves approximately 750 students in grades K-5. The design is based on collaboration and features neighborhood-based classrooms, shared learning hubs, and an outdoor learning lab. Moveable furniture accommodates flexible uses and functions, allowing teachers to use shared spaces to enhance their curricula. Educational signage about the school’s sustainability measures serves as a learning tool to help students see how the school positively interacts with its environment.
LS3P Vice President, Principal, and Architect Mary Beth Sims Branham, AIA, sees the design as a community anchor. “We wanted the school to integrate into its environment, both in terms of the natural setting near the Gills Creek Watershed area and the ‘international corridor’ along Decker Boulevard,” she explains. “Our exterior palette uses earth tones to harmonize with the landscape, but also incorporates ribbons of red, blue, green, and yellow glass to reflect the flags of the nations represented in our neighborhood.”
The school opened to students in the fall of 2017.
About LS3P
LS3P’s Columbia office is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2019. Founded in 1963, LS3P is an architecture, interiors, and planning firm with regional roots and national reach. Operating from its eight offices in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Savannah, LS3P is deeply committed to the communities in which it serves, and has been honored with over 560 design awards in diverse practice areas. For more information on LS3P, visit www.ls3p.com.
