New Thinking About School Design

"Today, people want more color and light, more collaborative areas for students to meet and more intimate spaces that make large schools feel less daunting, Dull says. Those are the elements that his Portland firm, Dull Olson Weekes, has incorporated into West Linn-Wilsonville Schools in recent years... "You'll hear people use the words 'warm,' 'cozy,' 'light,' 'comfortable' and 'scale,' " said Dull, principal architect. "All those words give you a feeling of what they'd like the building to be." District Superintendent Roger Woehl says he knows what new or remodeled buildings shouldn't be: reflections of an assembly-line past."