SCHOOL'S MASTER PLAN VISION // To create an enriching playscape benefiting Houston Elementary and the surrounding community through sustainable practices, active and educational play, as well as safe community gathering spaces.
To view the master plan click here
PROJECT SUPPORT // The Big SandBox (TBS) is proud to support Houston, its parents, students, staff and community as they reimagine their schoolyard. Special thanks to the students of Iowa State University and Professor Bambi Yost, University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center, and Mt Airy USA. The Mt Airy Schools Coalition is part of the TBS #DIGPhilly campaign. #DIGPhilly is a 2015 winner of the Knight Cities Challenge, which seeks ideas to make cities more successful by helping them keep and attract talent, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of civic engagement.
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit Knight Foundation
LOCATION
Henry H. Houston Elementary School is located in the West Mt. Airy neighborhood in North West Philadelphia. Built in 1926, Houston Elementary has maintained its historical architecture for nearly a century. In 1989 the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Throughout its history Houston Elementary as undergone multiple renovations including the addition of a cafeteria and a library.
THE INTENT
The Big SandBox, Iowa State University, University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center and Mt Airy U.S.A. have partnered with six schools that comprise the Mt. Airy Schools Coalition: AB Day, Emlen, Henry, Houston, Jenks, and Lingelbach schools. Each school is being provided a master plan, a written report and set of schematic drawings that set forth the structure for future campus improvements. Through these master plans, each school has articulated a vision that speaks to the desires of the school and surrounding community.
THE CHALLENGE
The second largest land holding in Philadelphia is a patchwork of weeds, crumbling concrete walks, and lonely basketball hoops astride a sea of cracked asphalt. City schoolyards—and their visual cues—reflect harshly on the personal character of their communities.
THE SOLUTION
In an era of failing schools, economic injustice, poor childhood nutrition, and a national deficiency in environmental education, schoolyards can reverse economic decline, catalyze a neighborhood, and reinvigorate a city. Only two other cities in the United States have managed to fully rebuild their elementary schoolyards: Denver and Boston. Neither did so with an eye toward green infrastructure, Philadelphia will be first to transform schoolyards into multiple-use facilities that have such versatile and exponential impacts on neighborhoods and communities.