How to Actually Design a School That Lasts

Most people think designing a school is about square footage, classrooms, and bathrooms. It's not. It's about predicting the future. In this video, I break down how we actually approach school design at Rise Architecture after doing over 150 schools across the country. I share the exact conversation I had with an executive director who called us to design a new building because the bathrooms were bad, and why my first question ("what's your ten year plan?") caught him off guard. I walk through the different types of learning spaces most people don't know exist. Half classrooms, quarter classrooms, private rooms, reading specialist rooms. Why understanding your school's operations at a granular level is the only way an architect can actually design for it. And why the same principle applies to any building type, from multifamily housing to commercial offices to yes, a chocolate factory. I also talk about our recent time at the EDN Conference and why going to non-industry-specific events has been one of the best business development moves we've made. When you're the one architect in a room full of school executives, you get all the attention. The core takeaway: our job as architects, and honestly as business owners in general, is to do our best to predict the future. If we can't, we're bad at our jobs. Timestamps: 0:00 The 10 year plan conversation 0:18 Why the EDN event is different 1:33 Why non-industry events win more work 2:42 Designing schools for real growth 3:17 "We just want a new building" (client story) 4:14 The questionnaire we hand out 4:50 Half, quarter, and specialist classrooms 6:23 Every project needs this same approach 7:15 An architect's real job is predicting the future #SchoolDesign #Architecture #EducationalDesign #YeshivaDesign #BusinessGrowth #RiseArchitecture #Overbuilt