Hawthorne Elementary School, Westerville City Schools

The Hawthorne Elementary School renovation was a unique opportunity for Triad to create an exciting thematic space. The existing building had not seen a renovation since the early 2000s, and the district encouraged us to have fun with our design.

Originally built in the 1950s, the modernist style school was a perfect foundation for the space station themed learning environment the students requested. Our team pulled in bright, cool colors to represent planets and galaxies while also functioning as way-finding for students.

The design team utilized retro-futurism throughout the space, paying homage to its 1950s origins. Hanging globe lights look like planets and long arches resembling shooting stars. A showcase feature lies in the cafeteria where students see our solar system hanging overhead.

To maintain functionality for students and faculty in the building, the renovation was broken into the 3 phases which will occur over summer and winter breaks.

Because many existing features of the original architecture worked well with our space themed design, we were able to create a cost-effective contemporary learning space with material updates including finishes, casework, technology and furnishings.

A major feature of the renovated school is the PBLAs (Project Based Learning Areas.) Each area of the building contains a central PBLA to encourage breakout collaborative learning for groups of students. These spaces allow teachers to get creative and utilize a variety of teaching styles.