Woodrow Wilson
Senior High School Modernization
Washington, DC

Davis Brody Bond participated in invited competition to modernize the Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Washington, DC. The project presented a great opportunity to both preserve an existing historic neighborhood icon and to create a new, vibrant 21st century social and academic environment. The synergy established by innovatively reusing the existing main building and invigorating it with new state of the art, efficient and durable modern construction, allowed for an extraordinary rebirth of a new Wilson Senior High School as a centerpiece for the local community.

The High School is multi-faceted, including serving as a community center. Relating to and harmonizing with the neighborhood context was a central goal of the project. We established a strong spatial relationship to local commercial streets, while softening the residential edge. Multiple vistas were established throughout the building to provide connections to the community fabric. Orientation was reinforced with a hierarchy of streets that allow students visual connections to one another and to their destinations.

Another central design goal was clarity and transparency of structure and mechanical systems and honesty in the use of materials. Exposure of building systems brings an implicit understanding of how a building stands up and how it is heated and cooled. Indoor and outdoor spaces are inseparable, and “exterior classrooms” are available throughout the campus. Areas for sculpting, painting, eating, acting, playing, listening, gardening, reading, dancing, gymnastics, relaxing and learning encourage social and academic interaction. An outdoor stage permits film and live events to be hosted. Learning takes place both in the naturally day-lit buildings and in the surrounding exterior environment, a natural extension of the adjacent park. The new Wilson campus is conceptualized as an extension of the park’s greenscape, visually flowing from north to south through the classroom modules.