Location
Round Rock, Texas
Size
375,000 square feet
Status
Completed 2010
This two-story, 375,000 square foot public high school is divided into four academies: visual and performing arts; science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); international business and professional studies; and the freshman program. Each academy sits in a line along the west side of a central courtyard; on the east side are a performing arts center, a cafeteria, a media center, and an athletic complex.
Envisioning Cedar Ridge as something like a graduate school, KAH Architecture in association with Perkins+Will aimed to foster the coziness of a close-knit academic department while creating ample gathering space. Students stay within their academy clusters on the west side of the courtyard and mix together in the cafeteria, theater, and other communal spaces on the east side.
Flyover roofs span the courtyard to connect the tilt-up concrete structures. The roofs provide shade and capture breezes, a strategy that harkens back to the dogtrot houses popular in 19th Century Texas. A covered walkway along the courtyard serves as a kind of porch for the rooms alongside it, from the cafeteria to the drama classroom, where students use the walkway as an impromptu stage. The concrete on the interior and exterior is painted in neutral stone hues, with limestone veneer in the lobby and other public spaces to add regional flair.
To support cost-effective design and a shortened construction schedule, the school utilized tilt-up concrete panels. Different than a typical tilt-up design as a construction type, Cedar Ridge High School employs other regional materials accompanied with the concrete to establish a more sophisticated, non-traditional aesthetic. The use of concrete, complimented by the natural limestone, reinforces the permanence of the architecture and anchors the building to the site. Ribbons of glazing are strategically integrated into the architecture maximizing the indoor/outdoor connection while also reducing solar heat gain.
