Revitalizing East Baltimore Neighborhoods
A Community Based K-8 Publid School Campus

Baltimore City schools are recording a consistent decline in test scores. More than half scoring below the national average. New curriculum's are incapable of dealing with the problem. The source of the cause must be addressed. Inner schools can not exist in the state they're in. In order for a school to function well it requires the collaboration between not just students and educators but a community as well.

The solution to the blight of the Baltimore Public School System is the implementation of community structured schools. This thesis claims that the development of the successful education for our youth lies in the design of a school that promotes health, safety and community. The incorporation of community based services and secondary education in an open campus setting will ensure a watchful eye over the maturation of inner city youth. Strong bonds within the urban environment will produce success.

Environment effects the student at many levels. Education begins and ends in the community. If the community is brought into the daily functions of the school then education becomes more effective. A successful community school doesn't end with community based functions based in the school itself. A true community school has a visual connection to the rest of its environment. The attempt of this thesis is to design an urban educational facility, which relates the everyday use of the community school to the everyday existence of the neighboring community. The design is that of a typical day in the life if a child.

Baltimore is expanding and regeneration itself. Along the waterfront the pace of growth and of change is fast. New communities are being constructed like Pleasant View Gardens in historic Jonestown, and Broadway Estates in Washington Hill. These new housing developments require a school that can support growth and improvement.

Equally important to the success of connecting communities is the support of the education of potential students moving into the area. At the moment, enrollment at City Springs Elementary School and Lombard Middle School are down. The effect of the poor testing history of both schools and fewer local students attending public school in East Baltimore. This proposal will attempt to provide a new school for the community to bring families back to East Balitmore and create a precedent for more effective urban educational facilities. With a redesign of City Springs Elementary School and Lombard Middle School into a single K-8 grade community based school the region of East Balitmore will be able to regenerate itself into a successful diverse neighborhood.

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