Education facilities—be they for the youngest students or the most advanced—are hubs of learning and connecting and serve as foundational environments in which information is shared and ideas are born. Though these facilities are very important to students, educators, and local communities, the design, building, and renovation of them are often subject to budget constraints, availability of resources, and/or abbreviated timelines. This is typically true whether the scholastic facilities are funded by municipalities, states, or private sources. That’s why it is so vital that the surfacing materials specified for any education facility design project be of superior quality and a more timeless aesthetic. The surfaces in school environments must hold up to wear and tear and sustain their design appeal for the long term, as it could be many, many years before budgets accommodate replacement or updating.
Porcelain tile serves as an excellent surfacing choice for scholastic facilities because of its strength and durability, ease of cleaning and long term maintenance, and range of designer looks and styles. Crossville collections, including colorful lines and gauged porcelain tile panel offerings, are found in learning institutions nationwide, as interior designers have turned to us for creative solutions to answer even the most demanding installation challenges.
Here’s a look at a few school projects representing various installation scenarios. You can find all of these and more project stories in the Education Design case study section on our website.
Onondaga Community College
Crossville’s gauged porcelain tile panels, lean profile tiles with outer dimensions measured in feet—not inches, proved to be the right surfacing for the renovation of restrooms in the Gordon Student Center at Syracuse’s Onondaga Community College. The project was a significant one, as the existing bathrooms were outdated in all aspects, including the existing olive green tiled walls and floors covered in peach and gray mosaics. Because of their lean profile, the Crossville porcelain panels were installed directly over the old tile surfaces, eliminating the time, cost, and labor involved in demolishing the previous surfaces. The look of the new tile is on point for design styles now and has staying power to remain appealing for the long haul. Discover the full story and view images by clicking here.
Wildorado School
Wildorado, Texas (population 200) may be small, but its local school plays a prominent role in the community as a connecting point for Wildorado residents and surrounding areas. Through a $13 million bond, the Wildorado Independent School District built a new school campus on 40 acres of land that expanded the existing K through 8 school to also include grades 9 through 12. The new 52,000 square-foot facility was designed to allow for student population growth and to accommodate a middle- and high school-only areas in the future. The design team from Lavin Architects was tasked with aesthetically honoring the school’s identity while hitting the mark for the necessary technical performance required for a busy school environment. To this end, the designers opted for 7’-tall tile wainscot in the corridors comprised of our Argent in Winter Garden and Color Blox in Sandbox. The combination of subtle texture and pattern offers a soothing blend to enhance the busy paths of the hallways.
To emphasize the signature blue color of the school’s Mustangs logo, the designers specified Argent in the Memphis Blues hue for the wall tile wainscot behind the drinking fountains. This colorful focal point serves as a fun design element that conveys school spirit and also adds visual variety.
Lavin’s Sarah deGrood, AIA, had this to say about the design project,“Projects always go smoothly when you use good products from reputable manufacturers.” Read the entire Wildorado School case study and see more pictures here.
American Senior High School
This project spearheaded by McHarry Associates involved the complete renovations of 39 student bathrooms! Of course, it’s important to design school restrooms and showers with performance and durability foremost in mind, but does that mean that they also have to be dull and boring? And does being fashion forward mean risking that the spaces will soon feel outdated? The answer is no on both counts. MCHarry’s creative minds focused on the use of color as a way to take American Senior High’s bathroom facilities to the next level in terms of aesthetic appeal, and our Color By Numbers wall tile collection in its veritable rainbow of options came to the rescue!
The designers decided to incorporate multiple, engaging color schemes rather than just one combination. The result was color combos (that were definitely not too traditional) in adventurous mixes such as turquoise, grass green, sky blue, and slate grey, which were brought to life in big, bold blocks of color, often contrasted against spans of pure white.
The American Senior High School project proved that details really do make a difference, and life is best lived in full, vibrant color! Click here to read the full case study.
De Anza High School
This Richmond, California high school had been serving generations of students for 50 years when it was decided a complete rebuild, rather than renovation, was in order. The new nine building campus would house more than 1400 students at any given time, and with creative planning, the school remained open during the 6+-year building process.
An important specification for the project regarded the exterior facades, as officials anticipated lots of weather, wear and potential defacing. The original specification called for thin brick façade, but soon after the brick installation on just one building, administrators requested an additional application of anti-graffiti finishes that proved to be expensive and ineffective. What to do now? The design team found their answer in Crossville, with our superior cladding system and Cross-Sheen® finish that provides defense against graffiti, scuffs and stains. Designers were able to match the thin brick appearance with our Cross-Colors porcelain tile in the Terra Rosata colorway cut in the size and shape of the brick.The product was finished with Cross-Sheen to provide simplified cleaning and maintenance.
For the interior, specifiers prioritized both the technical properties and aesthetics of interior flooring, with special attention placed on slip resistance. Again, Cross-Colors filled the bill in a mix of colors to complement the interior’s palette of tawny, white, bamboo and sunflower tones.
A Word About Cross-Sheen®
Exclusively from Crossville, Cross-Sheen is an invisible, integrated finish that protects the look of nearly any Crossville tile from the defacing effects of scuffs, stains, even permanent marker, and graffiti. Watch this video to see how it works by clicking here.
