Alpharetta High School
Alpharetta, Ga.
Perkins+Will

Whole is greater than the sum of its parts

© Chris Barrett/ Hedrich Blessing

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Using a juried design competition, Fulton County Schools selected Perkins+Will to design the Alpharetta High School in a way that would address a growing concern about the impersonal culture of large high schools. Accordingly, the architects created a “school within a school” that divides Alpharetta's 1,850 students among three wings of classrooms. These wings, dubbed “houses,” are small schools that benefit from the shared resources of the entire institution. The concept allows teachers to know each child personally and guide the same group of students through grades nine to 12.

Stretched across a ridge in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains, the 74-acre site of the Alpharetta High School presented a number of design challenges—the biggest of which was a 150-foot drop to the Big Creek basin below. Perkins+Will sited the building and athletic fields within this constrained topography while maximizing views across the valley. Each classroom wing is two stories high, with teacher workrooms located on both levels. The wings open to a linear spine that connects the building’s shared spaces including its media center, cafeteria, career technology, arts, and athletic facilities. In response to the client’s desire for a campus atmosphere, a free-standing building houses arts and athletic facilities; this separation also allows for public access after school hours.

The gymnasium features a concrete structure with a masonry and metal shingle skin. By contrast, the arts and main academic buildings feature steel clad with ground-face block, Norman brick, and galvalume metal shingles. By specifying lightweight metal shingles on the upper part of exterior walls, the architects reduced structural steel sizes and thereby reduced costs. Interior partitions in the classrooms, corridors, and office areas consist of high-impact drywall, while concrete comprises the gym, stair, and toilet cores.

In keeping with the environmental principles of its practice, Perkins+Will made every effort to include sustainable elements. Nearly all instructional areas receive natural daylight, for instance, and building materials include recycled content. Trees removed from the site were harvested through timber companies. Many of the retaining walls incorporate geotechnical blankets that are tied to baskets of soil planted with grasses to maintain vegetation on the site and reduce the heat-sink effect. In an effort to mitigate impact on the Big Creek basin, storm water runoff from the buildings and parking lots flows into landscaped depressions that rehydrate the site’s water table.

Formal name of Project:
Alpharetta High School

Location:
Alpharetta, Ga.

Gross square footage:
333,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
Building construction - $35 million
Site development - $12.4 million

Owner:
Fulton County Public Schools

Architect:
Perkins+Will
1382 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
404-873-2300 tel.
404-892-5823 fax
www.perkinswill.com

From left to right: Barbara Crum, AIA, Manuel Cadrecha, AIA, Katie Pedersen, AIA, Ron Talens
Paula Vaughan, Amy Sickeler, David Sheehan, IIDA