Wilburton Elementary School

Immersive color inspires creativity, life and wonder as its transmitted luminescence enhances the educational experience at Wilburton Elementary School. Vanceva Colored glazing was utilized in both vertical and overhead glazing to bring enhanced learning inspiration to generations as they begin their career in education. Gifted with the inherent richness of opportunity that abounds in the creation of a new school on a park-like, greenfield site, Wilburton’s design team, owner and stakeholders embraced the development of an agile, adaptive, sustainable school that is educationally and environmentally responsive to the needs of students, teachers and community. Through an inherent physical and technological flexibility, Wilburton offers usable learning space in virtually every corner of its compact, two-story floor plan. Learning spaces are balanced on the sloping site and offer exterior relationships via outdoor courtyards that facilitate connection with the natural world. An educational partnership with the adjacent botanical gardens enhances authentic experiential learning opportunities.

Multiple active and passive sustainable elements make Wilburton a regional leader in environmental and resource conservation. The first brand new elementary school since the 1970s in the city, Wilburton has become a bellwether for excellence in immersive learning and student engagement. Wilburton, a Microsoft Lighthouse School, is part of a technologically linked global learning community with real-time interaction with elementary classrooms around the world. Through both experiential and technological methodologies, students are provided with a personalized, multi-modal and largely self-directed learning experience that can happen virtually anywhere within, and outside, the school.