Prince George’s County Public Schools, Open Space Pod Conversion, Maryland

“Size:
varied

Highlights:
Adaptive Reuse”

Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS), one of the nation's 20th largest school districts, has 200 schools and centers, more than 133,000 students. The school system serves a diverse student population from urban, suburban and rural communities located in the Washington, DC suburbs. PGCPS is nationally recognized for college and career-readiness programs that provide students with unique learning opportunities.

There are a number of schools in Prince George’s County that have open classroom pods. This project involves the conversion of existing open space pods into conventional classrooms.

The open classroom pod environment, a popular teaching concept of the 1960’s and 1970’s, has become an impediment to learning in today’s environment. Students in these pods experience high levels of noise and distraction. Where partitions have been installed to create conventional classrooms, an improvement in student achievement and behavior has been observed.

This project involves the conversion of four existing pods at 1952 & 1974 buildings including the music and special education rooms, into conventional classrooms. This project will also include minor alterations to the building's structure or utility service that may be required to accommodate the mechanical and electrical equipment that will support air-conditioning for the renovated space. The interior corridors that link the open space pods will also be renovated.

Three Pods have 4 classrooms and one Pod has 2 classrooms, for a total of 14 classrooms to be renovated as in the case of Hollywood Elementary School and all 4 Pods containing 5 classrooms, for a total of 20 classrooms to be renovated in the case of Indian Queen Elementary School.