Grimm & Parker Logo
Grimm & Parker Logo

Myrtilla Miner Elementary School

Washington, D.C.

client

District of Columbia Public Schools

size

85,000 sf; 400 students

type

New Construction

stats

560 students

partner

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project

The tight urban site—made even tighter with the renovation of a historic 1901 structure into a community service facility—required a design with a compact footprint. The resulting building, constructed on the phased occupied site, conveys a sense of home and security through its warm brick tones.

Elaborate brickwork and arched entryways make Myrtilla Miner Elementary School feel right at home in its residential neighborhood. This urban community now has a school that is harmonized with its staggered rowhouse context and state-of-the-art in its features.

The Four Seasons

Inside, the Main Street corridor separates the community use rooms, such as the cafeteria and gymnasium, from the academic wing so that spaces in the school can be used by the community after hours.

The school’s 2-story media center is wrapped by classrooms filled with natural daylight, resource rooms, extended learning areas and large group instruction spaces.

Colorful tile murals of trees, curving window mullions in soaring, daylit spaces, and motifs of fall leaves, snowflakes, and flowers decorate stair guardrails and flooring to bring the outdoors in and celebrate the four seasons of learning.

 

Closing Thoughts

Residents in the area have enthusiastically embraced the school as a community hub. They find comfort in its colorful and neighborly aesthetic and in the 21st Century learning model it strives to uphold.

Awards

Honor Award

AIA Maryland

Grand Honor Award

AIA Potomac Valley

Award of Excellence in Design

USCOE

Architectural Design Award

Masonry Institute