Using their award-winning campus master plan as a guide, the new international school in Baton Rouge, LA designed by Trahan Architects has just entered into the schematic design phase. The facility will be comprised of a gymnasium, stage, classrooms and an administrative suite. After interviewing Trey Trahan and being introduced to several of his projects, it is evident that the firm’s emphasis on understanding the context, in terms of both built form and culture, continually provides the backbone for their design process.
Trahan has an almost spiritual philosophy of how buildings can and should affect people. Encouraging interaction between all types of people, the school responds to the innovative pedagogy of the international school. The design also incorporates a network of pedestrian thoroughfare with a public promenade, which begins with an elevated boardwalk of wooden slats crossing a shallow streambed at the building’s eastern edge.
The boardwalk expands to an elevated pavilion that is continually activated throughout the day by campus activity: congregating parents waiting for their children in the morning and afternoons, outdoor instructional space during the day, and expansion of the adjacent gymnasium for performance and events in the evening. Ultimately, this glowing volume will become the central figure in an emerging campus.
The building is organized as an aggregate with translucent volumes terracing down to the public entry, and the central gymnasium figure embedded deep in the composition. A series of stacked overlapping frames create large, open spans ideal for flexible configuration, transforming the building into an ephemeral collection of zones.
Flexible systems will allow the school to reorganize the building at any time, creating spaces beyond the building’s primary function, including a 750 person theater, a 2500+ square foot art gallery, a generous public foyer and several 900 square foot art rooms. As the campus continues to evolve, so too will this first building.
Project Information
Baton Rouge International School Phase One Building
Baton Rouge, LA
Project Type: Educational
Project Scope: Multi-Use Educational Facility Schematic Design and Master Plan of Suburban Campus
Client: Baton Rouge International School
Project Size: 19,500 sf.
Completion Date: TBD
Key Personnel: Trey Trahan FAIA (Principal), Erik Herrmann (Project Designer)
Project Team: David Merlin, Sean David, Judson Terry, Mark Hash, Brad McWhirter AIA, Blake Fisher, Ben Rath, Michael McCune
Design Team: Reed Hilderbrand – Landscape Design (Master Plan)
