Burr Elementary
Fairfield, Conn.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Designs a Public Elementary school that opens onto the landscape, and even surrounds some trees

© Robert Polidori

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By William Weathersby Jr.

On a wooded, 15.5-acre site adjacent to a neighborhood of upscale single-family homes in Fairfield, Connecticut, the Burr Elementary School comfortably blends into the landscape, functioning as a “good neighbor” with its unintrusive scale and subdued, clean-lined presence. Burr Elementary, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), is one of two new schools recently built to support current and future growth in the township of 54,800 citizens.

Accommodating 500 students, the school’s design creates a variation on the traditional double-loaded corridor school layout, locating the communal library, art, science, and cafeteria spaces at the center of the two-level plan. Existing trees perforate the footprint, within a series of amoeba-shaped courtyards that function as outdoor classrooms contained in the building volume. Circulation routes occupy the residual spaces between the courtyards, creating a continuous space onto which all classrooms and instructional areas open. As project architect Scott Duncan points out, circulation and sight lines have few obstructions. “This is a school where it is very hard for young children to lose their way,” he says. At the center of the plan is the library/media center, which opens onto an outdoor courtyard furnished with benches. A science courtyard contains a weather station for student experiments. The bus drop-off on the building’s south side and a parent carpool drop-off on the north side avoid the necessity for a perimeter road encircling the school; this traffic planning helps to preserve the view from each classroom directly to pristine woods beyond.

Enhanced by an attractive palette of local stone and wood, the design harnesses daylight within a free-flowing plan. Sustainable components include the use of recycled materials, a waste-management plan, and irrigation systems. And an added plus: The roof encloses or “suppresses” all mechanical systems so that neighbors at higher elevations overlooking the school spy only a sculptural plane that functions as a “fifth facade.”

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Formal name of Project:
Burr Elementary

Location:
Fairfield, Conn.

Gross square footage:
69,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$14.6 million

Client:
Town of Fairfield

Architect:
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
14 Wall St.
New York, NY 10005
212/298-9300
www.som.com