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Lamplighter School Innovation Lab exterior photo at night
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A stark wood and metal profile shot of the exterior structure with walking paths and lush landscaped greenery
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Exterior shot of the metal Innovation Lab building seen through a field of wildflowers
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An aerial view of Lamplighter Innovation Lab and the surrounding greenspace
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An interior shot of children reading in a window sill of glass, metal, and wood details
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The Kids Circle gathers in a Lamplighter classroom with glass windows to the exterior, wooden walls and ceilings, and lights modern lights hanging from the ceiling
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Hallway showing geometric angled wooden roof, white walls, glass doors and windows, and woven art handing on the walls
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Students in the Innovation Lab leaning against the angular cut walls of the room and sitting in a window sill
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Lamplighter Innovation Lab building shows glass concrete and wooden ceilings in a modern space above young children working on art projects
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Lamplighter School Innovation Lab

Close Project

Originally designed by O’Neil Ford in the late 1960s, The Lamplighter School enjoys a rich architectural heritage. The campus boasts a design highlighted by open learning spaces, a close relationship with nature, and a “village” composition developed from the original O’Neil Ford plan. In the spring of 2014, The Lamplighter School undertook an ambitious plan to reimagine their campus. An updated masterplan shifts vehicular circulation to the periphery of the site, enlarges the central landscape, and provides space for a new, freestanding Innovation Lab and Teaching Barn.

The approximately 10,000 square foot Innovation Lab serves the school’s 450 Pre-K through 4th-grade student population. Programmed with hands-on learning classrooms, including a woodshop, robotics lab, and teaching kitchen, the building is an expression of the educational values and vision of the Lamplighter School, one that suggests a holistic approach to design, systems, and learning with a relationship to the natural environment. The Innovation Lab contributes to the vitality of the existing campus of buildings and landscape spaces, while establishing a 21st Century identity.

The building is wrapped in copper and lined with wood planks at the exterior porches and the interior ceiling, introducing a refined, yet soft and lasting material palette that complements the original campus buildings. The dynamic form encloses light-filled, open interiors that compress and expand under the pitch and roll of the roof to accommodate varying classroom volumes and programs. A single bend in plan realigns the exterior walls with significant campus features and provides entrances at the east and west. At this fold, a third entry from the south is dropped low to the scale of a child then expands upward to the primary interior space, a teaching kitchen, located at the intersection of the east-west movement through the building.

LOCATION / Dallas, Texas
BUILDING TYPE / New Construction + Renovation
BUILDING SIZE / 10,800 GSF
COMPLETION DATE / January 2018

AWARDS /
+ AIA Arkansas Honor Award [2019]
+ North American Copper in Architecture Award [2019]

Marygrove Early Education Center

Marygrove Early Education Center

Lamplighter School Innovation Lab

Lamplighter School Innovation Lab

Heartland Whole Health Institute

Heartland Whole Health Institute

Ledger City Center

Ledger City Center

Crystal Bridges Eleven Servery & Coffee Bar

Crystal Bridges Eleven Servery & Coffee Bar

Thaden School Bike Barn

Thaden School Bike Barn

Thaden School Performance Building

Thaden School Performance Building

Shelby Farms Park Structures

Shelby Farms Park Structures

Shelby Farms Park Restaurant and Event Center

Shelby Farms Park Restaurant and Event Center

Thaden Reels exterior photo of it's angular modern structure at night

Thaden School Reels Building

Harvard ERC Hotel

Harvard ERC Hotel

Flyrite

Flyrite

The restaurant space showing a beautiful mix of materials of concrete masonry units and plywood

COOP Ramen

Lamplighter School Barn

Lamplighter School Barn

Harvey Pediatric Clinic red metal and glass profile shot looking across parking spots

Harvey Pediatric Clinic

Steven L. Anderson Design Center Exterior exterior made of Indiana limestone, architectural concrete, and fritted glass

University of Arkansas Steven L. Anderson Design Center

Shelby Farms Park Visitor Center seen at sunset featuring a large overhanging 'front porch' overlooking fresh-cut grass

Shelby Farms Park Visitor Center

The church exterior seen at night, made of a box rib metal panel and red cross that shines from the top of a tower

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Shaw Residence

Shaw Residence

The low-slung form of the pavilion, bathed in dappled light, hovering above the forest floor, acts as an apparition in the woods

Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion

Tanglewood Cabin

Tanglewood Cabin

Montessori Elementary entrance at night

Fayetteville Montessori Elementary Building

Keenan Tower House lit up at night as it towers over trees in the forest

Keenan TowerHouse

Graphic House

Graphic House

Exterior shot of the glass window walls and metal structure seen at sundown

Fayetteville High School

Blessings Golf Clubhouse seen at dusk lit from inside looking over the cut grass

Blessings Golf Clubhouse

PORCHDOG PROTOTYPE, Biloxi, Mississippi (2009)

Porchdog

Montessori Primary, Fayetteville, Arkansas (2014)

Fayetteville Montessori Primary Building

A wooden floors, walls, and ceilings look out through glass at the concrete museum

Crystal Bridges Museum Store

The building's exterior lit from inside at dusk during a rainstorm

Gentry Public Library

Bella Vista Library

Bella Vista Library

L - Stack House, Fayetteville, Arkansas (2006)

L-Stack House

Interior airy wooden seating area below second flow overlooks with white ceiling and natural lighting

Northwest Arkansas Free Health Center

A view of the buildings beautiful white exoskeleton and night with lights shining from inside

Srygley Office Building

The Fulbright Building

The Fulbright Building

Moore HoneyHouse lit from inside at night with glowing jars of honey shining brightly through the glass

Moore Honeyhouse