INTRODUCTION
Why do people choose to build? Among our earliest instincts, the desire to create shelter was predominant. As human civilization evolved and progressed, the desire to build extended to include other forms of building such as places of worship, government, recreation, commerce and art. How these were designed and built was important because it expressed the ambition, values and identity that the people who sponsored them wished to convey about themselves.
We look at the buildings that exist from the earliest ages to understand the civilization and cultures that have preceded us. The interest is not simply academic, but vital because it reinforces how the built environment can be formed to yield the most successful places to work, play and achieve community. We rely and take cues from what history has to tell us of successful patterns of human settlement and place-making.
Legacy facilities are those that resonate with the values of the community – evidence of what is important in the lives of those served by the facilities. To build is to make an impact, a tangible and enduring statement and commitment to a desired identity. It is not about monumentality or excess. It is about investment in the best quality facilities that can be brought forward. To build with keen awareness of the fact that what we build will endure for 100 years or more, is a sign of a culture that does not accept obsolescence and the merely expedient.
School design and construction in California is fraught with issues that severely challenge the ambition for legacy facilities – this cannot be discounted. It is also insufficient reason to concede to facilities that are not the measure of who we are or to what we aspire to become. Today we have an unparalleled opportunity to create schools that are dynamic catalysts for strengthening communities through partnerships with governmental and service program providers.
This section is meant to assist you, the policy maker, to embrace the idea of creating school facilities that will endure as well-maintained and sustainable physical plants and as vibrant, well-designed places of learning; places that will earn the esteem and support of the entire community for generations to come because they evoke who you are and what you hold dear.
- Charles Higueras
Legacy Facilities Articles
|
