Schoolyard Synergy

Khan Lab School


Callander’s ‘Educate’ group collaborated with Khan Lab in Mountain View to come up with some ideas for improvements to their schoolyard. The school occupies a building within a small office park and their makeshift school yard, to this point, consists of a ‘commandeered’ parking lot and some surrounding areas.  Some improvements had been made already, including a perimeter fence, a play equipment storage facility and planter boxes, but the original architecture of the site was plain for all to see and opportunities to change the space to better serve the student body were abundant.  The plans that emerged built on the assets of the site while giving consideration to budget constraints.

The real star of this show though was the process.  All work took place over the course of one morning.  Callander Associates Educate Group members met with students and faculty, walked the site, engaged in a brainstorming effort and then rolled up their sleeves and got down to the business of generating some ideas!  The collaborative nature of the charrette was fantastic, with students and faculty present from beginning to end, providing input as the plans were being prepared.

Next step?  The academy intends to share the concepts with a broader stakeholder group and see which ideas contained therein garner support.  From there anything is possible!
We count ourselves fortunate to have been able to engage this enthusiastic and sincere group in this effort and hope to see their dreams come to fruition!

“Thank you so much for the gift of all of your time to KLS.  The experience was very helpful and enjoyable.  I asked my kids afterward and though neither of them had previously expressed interest in landscape architecture, they very much enjoyed the process and opportunity to participate in the exercise .”

Chi-Ray Chien, Head of Operations & Technology, Khan Lab School

Author

A. Mark Slichter

Principal - PLA, ASLA

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