Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-10-31
FUTURE SCHOOL BUILDINGS
j -xeGRT MADE $40 COMMISSIONERS
By On. AxINGsMAN.
Observation-Disclosures Recommends
lions Respeabtng Construction
Designs AeSpg Considered.

Dr. Rlchard kRgsman, chairman OF tne
board Of education,s committee on build
ings. repairs andssanitation, has transmit
ted to the District Commissioners certain
suggestions made by Mr. A. T. Stuart, the
superintendent Of Schools, in reference to
the plans for new school buildings now be-
ing considered by the Commissioners. In
transmitting Mr.. .stuarts suggestions DR..
kingsman added to them an urgent recon-
mendation that, If practicable, all water
closets be pl iced outside the school build
ings, in suitable annexes, and that, as
safeguard against possible contagion, the
clothing OF pupils in the cloak rooms be
separated by partitions projecting far
enough from the walls to prevent contact.
Mr.; Stuarts suggestions, which were in
Vl!ed py capt. Beach, the Engineer Com
missioner, who has immediate charge OF
the construction of municipal buildings, are
as follows:
For school houses designed for the oc-
cupancy of large numbers of children there
is conventional ground plan, in which the
arrangement and size of rooms and the
location and size of exits are determined
largeiy with reference to a safe, easy and
orderly handling of large bodies of chill
dren. Such ground plan has the sanction
OF long usage, and is approved by the ex-
perlence Of principals and teachers. 1t con-
templates school rooms large enough to
comfortably place forty-eight to fifty desks
and chairs, with ample aisles and with
spaces In front and rear sufficient to pro-
times.
There should be ample entrances and
exits for boys and girls on opposite sides
OF the buildings. with stairways leading d.
rectly from the main floor. The rooms
snould receive light from both sides-that
Is to say, they should be corner rooms. If
possible, to avoid it, no room should be
hghted from one side only. A comparison
OF what are known as inside rooms at the
corner rooms in the same buildings is In
vited. The objection to the room with win
dows on one side only is found, not alone
IN a bad distribution of light, but such
rooms are warmer in summer and more diff
ncult to Ventilate at all times.
Declared to BE Departure.
THE school building now in course of
construction at South Carolina avenue and
I'd street southeast is a radical departure
from the type ground plan, having no OPP
posite entrances for boys and girls. 1t is
difficult to see how 400 children can be
safely or expedttiously handled in a school
house In which all the avenues of egress
ON the main floor lead to a single front
door. None of the architects plans sub
mitted contain SO glazing a fault as this,
although several of them do not provide
the arrangements for exits that are de-
sired.
Il call attention to the fact that the
school rooms in many of the plans submit
ted are too small, being only twenty-four
feet wide. To comfortably seat forty-eight
to fifty pupils the rooms should be twenty
five to twenty-six feet wide and from
thirty-two to thirty-five feet long. I am
aware that the rooms conform to the re-
quirements of fifteen feet floor surface to
each pupil. but this is the minimum re-
quirement, which some of the architects
seem to think need not be exceeded. l
call attention to the ample size OF school
In of other buildings,
Franklin School. "a by q feet: Seaton
School, 40 by n feet; Curtis School, 1921
by 81 feet; Abbott School, 50 by 70 feet;
Dennison School, SO by 26 feet: Grant
School. SO by 2s feet; Webster School. 1875
by 26.2 feet.
'Reduc tion lof Number of. Pupils.
"While 1t is trre,that it has been, and yet
is the steadfast policy of the school au-
thorfties to materially reduce the number
Of pupils per teacher, the reduction thus
far accomplished does not warrant the
planning of smaller school rooms for many
reasons, chief among which are the need
of room for bookcases, number tables and
other appliances not formerly found In such
abundance as at present, and the space re-
quired for physical exercises now In daily
practice in all our schools, demanding wider
aisles and larger floor space.
"Tue plans of Marsh & Peter and OF
Waddy Wood, if rooms be enlarged. I
regard is more nearly conforming to the
essential requirements above noted than
any others. The plan of Braun, though
apparently economical of space, is faulty
in two important particulars: first, it con-
tains four rooms lighted from one side
only; second, access to the four rooms in
the wings is obtained through long, narrow
corridors, the pupils in the rooms at the ex-
IRENE end of the wings being in sort of
blind alley or pocket. hard place for chill
dren to escape from in case OF alarm.
Every room should be so placed as to have
rea SOnably direct access to a stairway for
exit.
II suggest that in future plans for school
houses inside blinds be omitted, as expen-
sive and practically useless, substituting
window shade over ground glass windows
Also that the blackboard ledge shall never
be more tina ntwo and a half feet from the
floor
BrauGht Here for Trial