Ashley McGraw DC specializes in educational architecture. One of our strategic advantages when it comes to the design of public school facilities is our perspective. Principal Nick Williams spent the early part of his career running the Facility Planning and Design department for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). This enables our whole team to understand the dynamics at play in a school through access to his firsthand experience.

Here are three major projects we’ve worked on in the past year:

Alice Deal Middle School 

To increase the capacity of Deal Middle School due to projected enrollment, the $18.6 million addition is roughly 21,700 square feet, adding 14 new capacity generating classrooms. Additionally, space was added for a student cafeteria, science lab, and academic support areas. The addition was completed in August of 2024 and brings Deal in line with the DCPS educational specifications.

We created a courtyard at the center of the existing buildings and the new addition connects the site and the existing multi-sport field. The areas around the new addition are developed as gathering space and provide appropriate activities for 6-8th grade students. Bioswales and other stormwater management systems are located in the main courtyard and along the building addition.

The addition addresses Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. Learning, instruction, and support technology were brought up to cutting edge standards and capacity. Classrooms with appropriate square footage are created from the original open floor plan concept to create an adequate 21st century learning environment and meet the DCPS educational specification standards.

The design team tracked an EUI (Energy Use Intensity) of 23.6 for the addition, which is aligned with what one typically sees for NZE school buildings. Some of the strategies that we used in order to get to this EUI: Envelope and Massing, Glazing, Water-Based Systems for Heating and Cooling, and Lighting Design.

Learn more about this project here. 

Ludlow Taylor Elementary School

Ludlow-Taylor has the good fortune of being a growing school that has seen increased buy-in from neighborhood families, in part due to the fantastic staff and school leadership along with the strength of Stuart Hobson Middle School. The 8,800 SF addition will provide a critical release valve for the school that has been finding creative solutions to find adequate space for its 433 students. The addition will include (4) Classrooms, (2) Resource Rooms and associated support spaces. The project’s expected substantial completion date is July 2025. The $8 million addition requires critical planning to ensure that the ideal learning environment is created that also is respectful to the existing context, allows for the current needs of the school to remain intact, and does not preclude opportunities for tomorrow. 

The team’s preliminary design approach is centered around the Ed Spec and educational instruction models – In order to embed a sense of student belonging while fostering positive social interactions through collaborative experience, we focused on generating a plan for a successful academic environment that would, in turn inform the form and massing of the building.

Using Passive House principles to guide the overall massing strategy, solar orientation, window-wall ratio and thermal envelope; the goal is to start with a building that has reduced its energy needs to such a great extent that the burden on renewables is minimized. With flat roof area, there is opportunity for the placement of PV’s, ideally via a separate Power Purchase Agreement from the existing facility to allow for independent tracking, to generate a good percentage of the building’s remaining energy needs.

Learn more about this project here. 

Barnard Elementary School

The Barnard Elementary School Classroom Expansion project will include full design and construction services for a 19,000-square-foot addition. This new addition will connect to the existing facility, replace the existing trailers on-site, and create a permanent solution for additional learning space. The $19 million project’s expected substantial completion date is July 2026. 

Our team began the design process by asking ourselves to consider ideas of how this addition can be implemented in such a way that minimizes impact to the school’s operations during the duration of construction while also providing the most optimal long-term solution that results in a significant enhancement to the existing facility’s urban presence in the Petworth community and learning environments.

 Learn more about this project here.