Cardinal Elementary School

• Project highlights: Cardinal Elementary School

• Architecture firm:  VMDO Architects
• Owner:  Arlington Public Schools
• Location:  Arlington, Va.
• Category:  General
• Project site: Previously developed
• Building program type(s):  Education - K-12 school

When it opened for the 2021 school year, Cardinal Elementary School established new standards for sustainability, energy performance, and learning environments for Virginia’s Arlington Public Schools. Despite its ambitious net zero energy goals, the project presented the design team with numerous additional challenges, including the renovation of an existing structure and historic library and a large-scale addition. However, the project seamlessly blends existing building stock to create a flexible and dynamic educational facility.

The original building was constructed in 1938 and operated as the Walter Reed School until its closure in 1984. It remained empty for more than 20 years until it was rehabilitated in 2008 to serve a “blended program” that offered a pre-K, library, and community center under one roof. When Arlington Public Schools shifted its pre-K programming to another site, the building no longer served local K-12 students despite the school district’s rapidly growing enrollment. The site was considered for a full-sized elementary school as well as a middle school, but neighborhood opposition eventually killed both proposals.

Following nine months of community engagement, the team produced a design that would add an 825-student school serving kindergarten through fifth-grade students on the site while still maintaining the building, library, and open space. The design solution demolished a circular one-story element that was added in 2008. Though the 25,382-square-foot element was relatively recently constructed, it wasn’t designed for vertical expansion beyond one additional floor. Its curving hallways also made supervision of students during class transitions a challenge. The team replaced the structure with a 92,177-square-foot addition that minimally expanded the overall building footprint. Additional construction completed in 2008 was renovated to preserve its embodied carbon.

The team took a blocking and staking approach that allowed a clean separation of school spaces. Noisier spaces for music, art, and dining were placed in the renovation and a two-story connector, while core academics were grouped in the four-story addition. Two levels of classrooms were stacked over the court space to accommodate a full-sized gym that is available to the community after school hours. That was made possible through a 14-foot full-story truss that also provides cantilevered space on the third and fourth levels. Noise originating in the gym is blocked from the classrooms above through a double plenum of acoustic drywall mounted on vibration isolation hangers.

With Cardinal Elementary School, the school system can now appropriately serve its entire elementary school population. Its unique design and community-based process also ensured the school system could maximize its existing real estate assets.