Table Rock Career Center

As part of a master planning process Dake Wells Architecture led for the Reeds Spring School District, the outdated Gibson Technical Center facility quickly emerged as a priority for replacement. The new 90,000 SF building includes mezzanine spaces and a stand-alone building for the district’s Construction Tech program. The existing Gibson Tech building was far too small, at approximately 36,000 SF, to house current functions. It was completely landlocked on all sides, and students had to pull trailers up a 10% grade with a 90-degree turn at both top and bottom of the hill to get to the strip of parking that served as the facility’s only yard space.
Through extensive study and consideration of many options, it was finally determined that the new facility should be located immediately north of the existing high school to maximize opportunities for Reeds Spring students. This site also had steep grades, but through careful study, the team found a way to slip the building into the hillside and provide on-grade access at both floors and still have a very large flat yard between the main building and a smaller building for Construction Tech.
Technical Education is constantly changing and evolving. In response to this, the building is designed as a modular steel framework with massive clear spans and no load-bearing interior walls. This strategy means that shops and labs can be reconfigured to meet future needs at a fraction of the cost that it would take in a typical building. The building organizes into three long north-south bars: a clean lab on the east; commons and collaboration in the center; and shops to the west. Storage mezzanines for the shops are on the second-floor level and are accessible by elevator and at grade at the north end of the building.
The entire plan was also developed to allow a future phase to the south to add additional programs as community partnerships develop and funds allow.