Washington, DC., USA
The DC Bilingual Public Charter School addition is an illustrative celebration of vibrant histories, cultures, and futures.
The school’s need for a 28,000 SF addition and site improvements stemmed from the campus’ growing success and projected future growth of a doubled student population by 2027. The school campus posed a compelling design challenge due to its compact urban site with an existing historical school building and vibrant bilingual community. From feasibility studies through design stages, DC Bilingual’s leadership encouraged faculty and community collaboration with each other and the design team.
DC Bilingual Public Charter School by Hord Coplan Macht, Inc., received an 2025 International Architecture Honourable Mention from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
In response to this feedback and the needs of the school, the addition’s design focuses on three key goals. First, the proposed addition respects the historic nature of the existing school building while celebrating DC Bilingual’s future and ethos as a vibrant Latin American bilingual culture and campus. Second, the addition intentionally creates strong indoor-outdoor connections to encourage and highlight learning and achievement. Finally, the addition and its site prioritize occupant and community safety and welfare.
While the massing of the proposed third Classroom Wing reflects the historic classroom wings, the addition’s materials and façade articulations celebrate DC Bilingual PCS’s future and spirit as a bilingual campus in three central concepts: Light, Life, and Earth.
The new twelve classroom wing’s mass, at its core, is a traditional masonry building, representing the Earth or the foundation of the architecture in which the campus grows from. While prominent existing datums, such as the stone water table and cornice of the historic school building are carried through to the addition, the masonry colors are distinctly proportioned and patterned to be reminiscent of earthen landscape formations.
Draped over the masonry mass is a thin steel frame infilled with phenolic wood-look rainscreen panels, representing the vibrant life that stems from the tapestry of people who make up the DC Bilingual community. The distinct paneled patterning draws inspiration from the colorful textiles of Latin American cultures. This same tapestry thought is carried through to interior ceiling acoustical baffles at the new communal spaces.
To highlight and amplify the strong spirit of the school, light fills all learning spaces. Intentional programmatic adjacencies of internal and external learning spaces highlight the need for both indoor and outdoor learning, inviting students to learn, achieve, and lead in all settings. Connective glazed gaskets accentuate the physical connection between old and new.
The site design largely focuses on enhanced safety and wellbeing for all. Raised sidewalks and crosswalks, separate pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular circulation. All outdoor play areas are adjacent to interior learning spaces for secure and direct access and site solutions such as bioretention placement provides a natural barrier between students and vehicular circulation. The main new connective glazed gasket houses a new secured vestibule entry to the Addition, providing piece of mind to all occupants. Sustainable considerations, such as an intensive green roof, show acknowledgment of a shared responsibility for our wellbeing and future.
Architects: Hord Coplan Macht, Inc.
Design Team: Scott M Walters, Casey Smith, Margaret Gaggioli-Prichard, Chris Peterson, Leah Wettstein, and Alyson Taylor
General Contractor: Gilbane Building Company
Client: Daniela Anello, DC Bilingual Public Charter School
Photographers: Judy David Photography and Anne Chan
