This 150,000 square foot middle school is located in a rural north Florida county which was originally developed reflecting an extensive agrarian and fishing heritage. The most memorable Architecture in the area is reflected in the simplicity and straightforward nature of the small, non-descript structures that one finds scattered throughout the local environment. Covered footbridges, small country churches with traditional Pattern 105 drop siding, and tin roofed Victorian era houses all display a welcoming simplicity, devoid of fashion or current design trends. 

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The two-story educational facility is organized along an interior “street”, the structure and nature of which is intended to recall the numerous steel and wooden pedestrian and vehicular bridges scattered throughout the immediate area. The media center is positioned as the educational heart of the facility with the gymnasium and cafetorium providing appropriate bookends. A site mandated retention pond is being developed as an educational feature where an eco-trail will ring the pond adjacent to a natural wetlands area populated with a wide variety of fauna, birds and other native wildlife.

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Exterior wall materials include a combination of ground and split face CMU, utilizing local limestone shell aggregates, and horizontal metal siding configured in a profile that recalls the original Pattern 105 drop siding prevalent on many of the earlier buildings in the North Florida area.

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Standing seam metal roofs clad a combination of low-slung agrarian “saddle” roofs, shed roofs and hips, reinforcing the additive nature of much of the architecture found in the southern region of the United States and the northern part of Florida in particular.